SGI/IRIX support (was: Re: [PATCH 1/5] Drop support for 'configure.in' as the Autoconf input file)

[Stefano Lattarini]

On 01/28/2013 12:36 AM, Peter Rosin wrote:
>
> [SNIP]
> 
> [re SGI support]
> 
>>> What do you gain by the zap?
>>>
>> Not shipping broken code, and not having to debug/fix it for the
>> benefit of a vanishingly-small user base.
> 
> I agree, the zap is ok. But the rationale in NEWS comes out
> all wrong in its current incomplete state.
>
Indeed.  I've pushed the patch below to improve the situation; I will soon
push a similar patch to master.

Thanks,
  Stefano

---- 8< ---- 8< ---- 8< ---- 8< ---- 8< ---- 8< ---- 8< ---- 8< ---- 8< ----

>From 3aa14f4a13b049f65783eaffa0dd08f21eac86b4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
Message-Id: <address@hidden>
From: Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden>
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:22:12 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] NEWS: IRIX is still supported; only SGI C compiler depcomp no
 longer is

This change is for the maint branch.

The only IRIX-specific support that is going to actually be removed in
the next major Automake versions is the depcomp support for the SGI
compiler.  That means that automatic dependency tracking will no
longer work with that compiler, but "normal" compilation should still
work, at least until the compiler is supported by Autoconf.

So there is no point in alarming our users by stating in the NEWS file
that; after all, why we don't test on nor particularly care about IRIX
anymore, that doesn't mean we are deliberately braking it, and the
likelihood of an intended breakage there is very low.

See:
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2013-01/msg00164.html>
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2013-01/msg00165.html>

* NEWS (Future backward-incompatibilities: Adjust.  Improve explanation
of our rationale for dropping SGI support. Fix an unrelated typo while
at it.

Suggested-by: Peter Rosin <address@hidden>
Signed-off-by: Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden>
---
 NEWS | 14 ++++++++------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 040137a..f629fe2 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ New in 1.13.2:
     before Automake 1.14 is).

   - Automake 1.14 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
-    name for the Autoconf input file.  You are advised to start using
+    name for the Autoconf input file.  You are advised to start using the
     recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.

   - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
@@ -16,11 +16,13 @@ New in 1.13.2:
     support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which was introduced in
     Automake 1.13).

-  - Support for IRIX and the SGI C/C++ compilers will be removed in
-    Automake 1.14: they have seen their last release in 2006, and SGI
-    is expected to retire support from them in December 2013; see
-    <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html> for
-    more information.
+  - Automake 1.14 will remove support for automatic dependency tracking
+    with the SGI C/C++ compilers on IRIX.  The SGI depmode has been
+    reported broken "in the wild" already, and we don't think investing
+    time in debugging and fixing is worthwhile, especially considering
+    that SGI has last updated those compilers in 2006, and is expected
+    to retire support for them in December 2013:
+    <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html>

   - Future versions of Automake might remove support for MS-DOS and
     Windows 95/98/ME (support for them was offered by relying on the
-- 
1.8.1.rc3.438.ge9abef6