Re: function-local variables in ltmain

[Gary V. Vaughan]

Hallo Ralf,

Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> Welcome back!

Thanks :-)

> * Gary V. Vaughan wrote on Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 01:29:13PM CEST:
>
> > Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> >
> > > * Albert Chin wrote on Sat, Aug 13, 2005 at 09:56:43PM CEST:
> > >
> > > > On Sat, Aug 13, 2005 at 10:40:01AM +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> >
> > > Just look at two examples: func_extract_archives uses variables named
> > > my_*.  This is not safe: both its caller and any functions it may call
> > > itself may overwrite these accidentally.  func_extract_an_archive OTOH
> > > uses safe names f_ex_an_ar_*, but is ugly to the point of being
> > > unreadable.
> >
> > maintain an m4 map of function name to enumeration encoding, and name 
> > the local variables localxx_var_name if output ugliness is a big issue. 
>
> This breaks `eval'.  For the above-mentioned functions, that is no
> issue.  But it prevents us from using any TAGVARs within such a function
> with local variables, for example.

I don't see how... everything would be identical to your solution, 
except that instead of prepended the function name to m4 local vars, we 
could name them with a prefix of localxx (where xx is some enumeration
guaranteed to be unique by tracking the mapping in an m4 array) for 
readability.

> We might be able to cope with this limitation.  But it's a limitation
> that
> - "real" local variables do not have

ACK.  Maybe we could collaborate with the autoconf guys to hook into the 
new FEATURES interface to search for a shell that has real local variables?

> - my solution does not have

Nor my strawman I believe...

> - seems artifical to some point, and dangerous to another: in the m4sh
>   source file, this might easily be overlooked!

Agreed.

Cheers,
        Gary.
--
Gary V. Vaughan      ())_.  address@hidden,gnu.org}
Research Scientist   ( '/   http://tkd.kicks-ass.net
GNU Hacker           / )=   http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool
Technical Author   `(_~)_   http://sources.redhat.com/autobook

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