Re: FYI: loop in libtool m4 macros

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Stepan,

* Stepan Kasal wrote on Tue, Jun 28, 2005 at 11:22:00AM CEST:
> On Mon, Jun 27, 2005 at 06:21:48PM +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > > ... where reasonable submit documentation patches to the 
> > > Autoconf folks.
> > > 
> > > m4sugar.m4 at least should have a documented API that libtool and others 
> > > can use...
> > 
> > Surely.  I'm not volunteering for the documentation patches,
> 
> no one is, that's the problem.  ;-)

Well, part of my refusal is that I am both not very good at writing
documentation in general, then also in English, the other part is that I
don't understand the stuff well enough.

> > a preliminary list of macros used by Libtool macros [...]
> > not defined in autoconf.texi:
> 
> Let me comment on some of them:
> 
> > m4_bmatch
> 
> This (and m4_bregexp and m4_bpatsubst) is an unfortunate name.
*snip*
> I don't know how to get out of this confusion.
> Perhaps we have to leave it as it is; m4_b* will denote the traditional m4
> regexp versions, and m4_* will be the ERE versions.

Just to put this into perspective: Libtool branch-1-5 merely makes use
of:

m4_define
m4_ifdef
m4_ifndef

So, if Autoconf has any macros in that list which Libtool should not use
at all/under that name, nothing is really lost before we release 2.0.

> > m4_defun
> > m4_require
> 
> Why do you use these and not AC_DEFUN and AC_REQUIRE?

Gary?

> But I agree that these should be documented, for the non-Autoconf applications
> of m4sugar and m4sh.
> 
> All other macros you netion in the first list should be documented, including:
*snip*

Thanks,
Ralf