Re: [Bug-pyconfigure] PyConfigure

[Brandon Invergo]

Hi Arne,

Thanks for the great feedback! Life has denied me the one or two solid
weekend days that I need to wrap up the next pyconfigure release, but
your suggestions will be integrated.

Some responses:

> After the copyright header, the file should start with:
>
>
>     dnl Lines prefixed with dnl will not appear in generated files

100% agreed

> - Why is there code for virtualenv in the autoconf.ac? Should that not
>   be included by default, so every python project which uses
>   pyconfigure can be installed with virtualenv? (that goes along the
>   lines of having a unified way to install) 

The virtualenv-related macros are in configure.ac so that the generated
configure script gives the user the option of whether or not to install
to a virtualenv. But, since I agree that it should be included in most
configure scripts, it is not commented out in the sample
configure.ac. So, in my mind, that is "included by default"...unless you
meant something else?

> - Why is there no m4 macro for “maximum version” or “major version”?
>   Having to uncomment lots of stuff in the autoconf.ac seems strange:
>   Can’t this be shelled out to m4?

I agree that version checking is still not ideal. I will work on this
further. 

> - Why do we have m4_include([m4/python.m4]) and
>   AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])?

Oops, that's cruft. I think I had problems with the AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
macro not doing what I thought it was supposed to do. I need to double
check but I think the m4_include statement can be removed. Thanks for
pointing it out...somehow my eyes just passed over it every time.

> - Why do we need automake?

At the moment, we don't, so AM initialization is commented out. I left
it in there as a hint to devs that they can also use Automake. For some
projects, AM's Python support will be sufficient and they'll only use
the Autoconf macros from pyconfigure. A long-term goal of pyconfigure,
though, is to improve its ties with Automake.

> But the m4/python.m4 could really profit from some comments explaining
> the code - I am not used to m4 and it is kinda hard to follow. For
> example it took me some time to figure out this:

Good point. It can definitely be commented better. 

> PS: Some links on the website are broken - for example the one to the
>     help mailing list.

Hmm...the links work for me. Maybe a temporary server hiccup?

> PPS: Here are the changes I made. You should be able to just import
>      them as patches. They might have broken the file, though: Please
>      double and triplecheck the result. They should apply to
>      the restructure branch from Sun Jan 13 14:57:33 2013 +0100.
>      (I accidently worked on that branch…)

Thanks for the meaty patch! I'll edit and apply it tomorrow!

Thanks again for your feedback & help,
-brandon