Re: Using Perl's cc

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2015 22:00:27 GMT
> From: Karl Berry <address@hidden>
> 
>     Failing that it is probably possible to fall back to the existing Perl
>     modules. I don't much like the idea of having to maintain two modules
>     in parallel, one in C, one in Perl, which may have subtly different
>     behaviour, but it may be unavoidable.
> 
> I feel certain it is unavoidable.  I had never contemplated the idea
> that the xs version would be *required*.  I believe that would make
> makeinfo unusable in far too many situations.  It is critical that
> texinfo, like any GNU package, not require a "distro" to work.

I agree.  Also, just reading the correspondence about integration of
the XS module with Automake, it sounds like we will be boldly going
where (almost) no one has gone before.  It's certainly a
not-so-documented area.  Is it wise to rely on such shaky and probably
fragile basis for such an important feature?

> Furthermore, I think the code must automatically and silently fall back
> *at runtime* if the compiled version does not work for whatever reason.
> (Including all Windows-based systems, where I feel strongly that any
> attempt to make the xs work, even if possible in some limited scenarios,
> is not worth the time, effort, and complications.)

Again, I agree.  I'm not going to pursue or pressure for the Windows
issues to be solved: if there's no simple and reliable solution (which
at this point I don't think exists), I'll settle for being able to run
the Perl code, and for the build system to be able to detect the issue
and gracefully avoid building the extensions.

Thanks.