Re: AC_PROG_AS / AM_PROG_AS

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello,

* NightStrike wrote on Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 12:08:49AM CEST:
> (autoconf 2.63, automake 1.11)
> 
> Why is AS found with AM_PROG_AS instead of AC_PROG_AS?  Why is this an
> automake thing and not an autoconf thing?

I can only guess that it's historical reasons, same with AM_PROG_GCJ.
Also, both of these macros do not really address portability issues in
the tools, they merely set some variables and adjust Automake's
dependency tracking accordingly.

One problem with doing a true portable AC_PROG_AS is that the assembler
dialect can not be abstracted away, so the developer will have to
delimit herself anyway, or provide several variants of a file.  In the
end, the gains seem limited.

Cheers,
Ralf