Re: convert regex.c, strftime.c mktime.c to standard C

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Richard Stallman <address@hidden>
> Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:16:54 -0500
> Cc: address@hidden
> 
>     AFAIU getting "the latest version of these facilities from gnulib" is
>     not very simple...  We'd need to find a volunteer to do it.
> 
> Why do you think so?  It ought to be trivial to find the current
> gnulib files that do these jobs.
> 
> Changing Emacs to use those current gnulib files would be some work,
> but should not be a lot.

Finding strftime.c in gnulib is indeed trivial, but making it part of
Emacs that compiles on all supported platforms is not just "some
work", it's a formidable job, IMO.  I suggest you download the latest
gnulib and read the instructions for how to build it or its parts, and
also look at the scripts and source files involved to appreciate the
job at hand.

The build system used by gnulib is not just Makefile.in and
config.h.in.  It is one of the more contrived build systems I've ever
seen, and it requires to run the configury stuff on each supported
platform, to get all the gazillions of preprocessor symbols defined
correctly.  It is a lot of mundane, thankless work.  I can easily
understand why Dan is not volunteering, and I don't believe we will
easily find a volunteer, either.