Re: [Texmacs-dev] TeXmacs with Automake

[Katsuyoshi Ohara]

>>On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:58:01 +0100, Ralf Treinen <address@hidden> said:
> % patch -p0 < ../texmacs-automake.diff
> patching file src/Makefile.am
> can't find file to patch at input line 12
> Perhaps you used the wrong -p or --strip option?

Please try again with

    cvs -d :pserver:address@hidden:/texmacs co src
    cd src
    patch -p1 < ../texmacs-automake.diff

or

    cvs -d :pserver:address@hidden:/texmacs checkout -D '2005-12-20 00:00' src
    cd src
    patch -p1 < ../texmacs-automake.diff

The patch is generated for the sources around the date of the stay of Joris
in Japan.

> Anyway, what would be the advantage of automake ?

It is for getting more portability.
To be more precise, let me mention two points (1) and (2).

(1) We can avoid to use the gnu make, and automake gives a better solution
    than the gnu make.

   Gnu make is used in linux distributions as the standard,
   but it is not the standard in other unix or unix-like systems.
   Although there is this disadvantage, I understand that people like
   to use gnu make rather than the original make  to write a clean and
   simple Makefile.
   If you want to write a clean and simple Makefile,
   why don't you try Makefile.am.
   In fact, the Makefile.in and configure.in of TeXmacs are already
   very complicated to me, because it supposes the gnu make.
   It also causes a difficulty to understand the build procedure and
   consequently discourages to port the TeXmacs to a new system.

(2) GNU authotools will force us to write more portable TeXmacs codes.

  The use of GNU autotools (autoconf, automake, libtool, ...) will force
  us to improve the portability of the TeXmacs source code itself.
  Once we have started to use the GNU autotools, we can write better
  portable codes with the ability of the GNU autotools.
  My first version does not touch the main source code and does not use
  the full power of the autotools as the first step for you.
  However, we can improve the portability of the main source
  step by step with staring to use the automake.
  For example, libtool will solve the problems of dynamic modules.
  Most of ungly #ifdef's for Windows may be removed.

I hope that the introduction of automake will help us to get
more portability and easy maintenance of TeXmacs and to get more users.

PS.

Most major systems started or has started or start to use autotools.
For example, X11R7 now uses autotools.

Katsuyoshi