Re: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED doc update

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Stepan,

* Stepan Kasal wrote on Fri, Apr 29, 2005 at 06:22:42PM CEST:
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2005 at 05:53:40PM +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > > I think we should tell them at some stage, it can save them some typing.
> > 
> > Is saving on typing the only reason?  Let's use short, unreadable
> > variable names!  :->
> > 
> > No, seriously, for one bugreport less I'd happily type lots of quotes.
> 
> *You* would perhaps type the quotes happily; but we are talking about
> saving *their* typing.  Every Autoconf user would have to type more [ ]
> if we don't tell him about the trick.   ;-)

OK, agreed.

> > My editor also makes reading them easy, YMMV though.
> 
> <flame>
> Files should be easily readable as they are, without special tools to display
> them.  That's why I love text config files, and why I don't think XML is the
> best for human-written files.
> </flame>

I heartily agree here.  :-)

> > A definition (if possible) would be nice.  This is a guess of mine:
> > 
> > Simple text is text composed of the characters isprint(3) recognizes,
> > but not including brackets, comma, dollar, and words that constitute
> > defined macro names, m4 commands.  Within pure Autoconf we guarantee
> > macros to be all uppercase matching
> >   _?A[CST]_.*
> > and m4 commands all match
> >   m4_.*
> > in regex(7) notation.
> 
> No, there are 27 m4 builtins which are also available without the m4_
> prefix.  See ./lib/autoconf/autoconf.m4 in the autoconf source.

As I said, it was a guess.  Maybe those 27 builtins could be listed as
well?

> > > Shall we teach the users to quote all shell code which is outside of any
> > > macros?  I don't think so.
> > 
> > I tend to disagree slightly here.
> 
> You mean:
> 
> [if test "x$with_zlib" != xno; then
>         with_zlib=no]
>         AC_CHECK_HEADER(zlib.h, [AC_CHECK_LIB(z, gzread, [with_zlib=yes])])
> [fi
> if test "$with_zlib" = no; then]
>         AC_MSG_ERROR([*** zlib is required])
> [fi]
> 
> I think it wouldn't be nice to do this to our beloved users.

Hehe.  You are right, that is what I meant.  I agree it's not nice,
though.

> Life ain't easy.  Even computers are not able to make it so.  ;-)

Famous last words.

Cheers, and thanks for your comments,
Ralf