Re: [PATCH 0/2] Set Makefile variables from configure

From: Ben Walton <bwalton@artsci.utoronto.ca>
Date: Nov 4, 2009, 20:16 UTC
Message-ID: <1257364915-sup-9761@ntdws12.chass.utoronto.ca>
In-Reply-To: <7vy6mmf4hi.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

Excerpts from Junio C Hamano's message of Wed Nov 04 14:56:57 -0500 2009:

> What puzzled me was not "why is it not an error but just a warning?", which
> is what you just explained, but "why should we even care what value is
> being given to begin with?".

I'm sorry. I misunderstood then. I think that in most cases, setting either 'yes' or 'no' is wrong, but I wanted to leave the door open for it for the 1%. I thought that a warning message might be noticed and cause someone to rethink.

> I am guessing from this description of 'oddball variables' that your
> answer to my question is yes.  That is, configure.ac writers are
> strongly discouraged from using this new macro for variables that
> would usually get YesPlease/NoThanks kind of values.

Yes, that's correct. This new macro is for variables that are not a simple toggle. It is also distinct from the mechanism used to specify a path for perl, tcl/tk, etc, in that for those, we do want to error out on no.

Thanks -Ben

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Ben Walton
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University of Toronto
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