[darcs-users] down with autoconf

Jason Dagit dagit at codersbase.com
Thu May 15 16:54:09 UTC 2008


On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:12 AM, John Meacham <john at repetae.net> wrote:

>
> Now, autoconf isn't ideal, but I am not sure of any other alternative
> out there that are suitable. Replacing the functionality of automake
> would also be a lot of work in general.
>
> I think it would be an interesting project to work on, something nice
> and declarative that compiled to portable 'sh'.


Portable sh might exist on unix platforms but that doesn't help the windows
users.  Nor do I think that telling people to install msys or cygwin is an
acceptable solution.  It's possible that andLinux doesn't have the same
failings as msys/cygwin but dedicating system resources up front for
andLinux is a bit much.  Installing the Haskell compiler and required
libraries should be all that a Haskell programmer on windows needs to do to
build something like darcs.  Things like cygwin/msys/andLinux should all be
optional.

Then again, if you expanded your definition of portable sh to include the
default shell on windows, my complaints disappear :)

The general point I'm after here is that supporting windows is not just a
matter of supporting the lowest common denominator of unix-like systems.
You can make your program build/run on windows by doing this and then
forcing the user to install some unixy add-ons as needed.  But, I don't
believe the program will behave like a first class citizen until you address
the real issues.

In the case of darcs I would say the real issues keeping darcs from being a
first class citizen on windows are 1) it's too hard to build on windows 2)
the majority of windows users (including the windows programmers I know)
either don't like or don't know how to use the command line on windows.
TortoiseDarcs is aimed at solving #2.  I think getting rid of autotools for
the windows build helps with #1.  We can keep autotools for the other
builds.  If the cabal configuration can be made to not rely on autotools I
would say having the windows build work via cabal and all the other builds
use the autotools build is an acceptable way to go.  Or replace cabal with
franchise if appropriate.

Jason
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