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Re: AC_INIT translates PACKAGE to lower case


From: Ralf Corsepius
Subject: Re: AC_INIT translates PACKAGE to lower case
Date: 31 Jan 2002 12:51:12 +0100

Am Don, 2002-01-31 um 12.09 schrieb Akim Demaille:
> >>>>> "Tom" == Tom Tromey <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> >>>>> "Akim" == Akim Demaille <address@hidden> writes:
> Ralf> If using the new AC_INIT and AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE syntax, PACKAGE
> Ralf> gets translated to lower case letters. - Why this change?
> 
> Akim> Because that's the case for most packages.
> 
> Tom> I think the underlying question is, why does autoconf make this
> Tom> change at all?  
> 
> What change?
<sigh> Things are going to get silly. </sigh>

* Lowercasing PACKAGE
* Using a lowercased PACKAGE_TARNAME in "make dist"
 
> Tom> Why not let the user write what he intends, and then just respect
> Tom> it?  I confess I don't understand the rationale here.
> 
> There are two concepts here: the package name (GNU Autoconf), and the
> package tarball name (autoconf).  There is no change at all, only
> *new* things.

>From an automake user's point of view there are behavioral changes:

* Lowercasing PACKAGE
* Using a lowercased PACKAGE_TARNAME in "make dist"

>From an autotool's point of view:
* autoconf is intervening into one of automake's tasks: packaging
* automake has depredicated the old AC_INIT_AUTOMAKE, with the new
AC_INIT requiring ugly changes to retain what had been standard.

>From a standardization-focused point of view:
* automake w/ autoconf violating it's own documentation.
* autoconf is inventing new standards (lower-cased packagenames),
without technical reason.

>From a usability point of view:
* The old AC_INIT/AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE-API was clean, simple and straight.
* The tricks introduced by your patch from yesterday are ugly.


The solution would be so simple: 

Do not lowercase PACKAGE and PACKAGE_TARNAME. The
AC_INIT/AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE-API would be as simple as it has been and there
would not be any behavioral changes in using autoconf or automake, nor
would there be any confusion nor hacking inside of packages involved if
upgrading autoconf or automake.

Ralf

BTW: I guess you are aware that @PACKAGE@ is used by any package with
gettext support.






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