Re: easy script for telling which guile versions we are using?

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

[discussion moved from guile-devel]

   From: Ariel Rios <address@hidden>
   Date: 30 Jul 2001 23:57:16 -0400

     [how to find guile version?]
     guile-config [...]

   ah yes!
   I think it was the stupid question of the day!

actually, i think guile.m4 should provide, in addition to `GUILE_FLAGS'
(which sets env vars `GUILE_CFLAGS' and `GUILE_LDFLAGS'), a macro to set
var `GUILE_VERSION' and/or perhaps `GUILE_FEATURES'.

this is motivated by observation that guile-dependent projects often do
something in configure.in of the sort:

  guile_version=`guile-config --version`
  case $guile_version in 1.4) ;; 1.5) ;; *) echo bad guile ;; esac

we might as well incorporate this idiom.  which brings up the common
wisdom: it's better to check for features than look at version numbers.
i note that some of the symbols in the current `*features*' are
difficult to handle at the shell script level (e.g., `i/o-extensions'),
but this is not an insurmountable problem.

so, from the configure.in author's perspective, guile goodies would be
accessed like so:

         AC_PATH_PROG(GUILE,guile)
         GUILE_FLAGS
         GUILE_VERSION                  # sets var of same name
         GUILE_FEATURES                 # ditto

would this be useful to you?  alternate suggestions?  other things guile
users might find useful in writing their configure.in files?

thi