From: Paul Smith <paul@mad-scientist.net>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2024 14:25:07 GMT
Subject: Re: ./configure fails to link test program due to missing dependencies
Message-ID: <1e0074769f43f5a1f4938e74015b8903642d6b03.camel@mad-scientist.net>
In-Reply-To: <b6b131cb-683c-4140-9769-290b622721e1@gentoo.org>

On Tue, 2024-09-24 at 09:59 -0400, Eli Schwartz wrote:
> Still I would prefer meson over autotools any day of the week. I'd
> also prefer autotools over cmake, mind you.

Just to point out that relying on ever-more-esoteric build tools is a
recipe for frustration for those of us who want to build from source. 
Yes, I know meson is somewhat popular and definitely has a following,
but in the grand scheme of things it's still rare to find projects
requiring it, especially at the base level of software.  I build a lot
of software and I have never once had to install it, for example.

I maintain a minimalist set of tools and libraries that we compile
locally from source so we can control the full toolchain.  Every time a
package we want to add requires some new, different build tool it's a
massive annoyance.  As of today everything builds with either make or
cmake (mainly for Windows support).

On the other hand, now that all the systems we use have "good enough"
native versions of Git we have stopped building it in our environment.
So in that sense it no longer matters to me directly :).