Re: Cross compiling PARI/what about autoconf?

[Jeroen Demeyer <jdemeyer@cage.ugent.be>]

Bill Allombert wrote:
> Automake only know how to generate Makefile. It know nothing about
> compiler options and buidling libraries either.
I don't really see what you are trying to say.  Of course 
automake-generated Makefiles support compiler options (you means like 
CFLAGS, LDFLAGS and so on) which can be configured by ./configure.

> And that would make one more tool to install.
It is important to realize that the ONLY people who would need to 
install autoconf+automake are the people who want to develop the 
configure and make code.  People who just want to compile PARI can use 
the generated ./configure and Makefile files which you put in the PARI 
distribution.  The same holds even for people who want to develop the C 
code, you don't need autoconf/automake for that.

> On the other hand there are about 3 version of autoconf and 4 versions
> of automake with incompatible languages in current use.
I agree with you that newer versions of autoconf introduced a lot of new 
macros, they newer versions are mostly backwards compatible with older 
versions.  But, as I said above, I think there is not a big problem 
because only very few people will have to run autoconf/automake.  If you 
want to install PARI on an old exotic system, there is absolutely no 
need to have autoconf/automake on that system.  In fact, I think that 
autoconf will probably even make it easier to install PARI on such a system.

Cheers,
Jeroen.