Re: Could automake-generated Makefiles required GNU make? (was: Re: [gnu-prog-discuss] portability)

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Tue, 22 Nov 2011, Nick Bowler wrote:
> We must weigh the costs against the benefits.  It's currently not clear
> to me what the benefits actually are, to anyone other than automake
> maintainers.
>
> Currently, the benefits to automake maintainers is clear, there may be
> some benefit to package maintainers (hopefully by making automake easier
> to use), and there seems to be no benefit to users at all.

The benefits of depending on GNU make have yet to be enumerated.  It 
would behoove the proponents this change to do so.

Some benefits (somewhat) noticeable by end users that I see are:

  o Packaged Makefile.in (or GNUmakefile.in) can be smaller since GNU
    make string functions and other enhanced functionality can be used to
    eliminate/reduce Makefile code currently generated via Automake
    perl code.  Perhaps the GNUmakefile.in could be 1/3rd or even 1/4
    the size Makefile.in is today.

  o Full header dependencies do not need to be (as) optional.

  o Some functionality delivered as scripts (e.g. 'compile') could be
    subsumed by the Makefile so builds might be slightly faster.

  o Libtool script functionality could be assimilated into the
    Makefile so builds may be somewhat faster.

These are all marginal improvements from an end-user's perspective.

However, a good argument can be made that the GNU build tool should 
accept Makefile.am files directly, eliminating packaged Makefile.in 
files.  This is yet another argument that Automake should not depend 
on classic 'make' or even current GNU make.  There is no reason to 
deliver pre-processed template files to the user if GNU is free to 
insist that the user install a GNU build tool in advance (which it 
never has before).  If GNU is going to insist that the user install 
its own tool in advance, then it seems like that tool should provide 
quite a lot more functionality than other similar tools the user 
already has available.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/