Re: gnustep-make experiment

[Dennis Leeuw]

Matt Rice wrote:
> On 2007-02-10 17:34:59 -0800 Nicola Pero 
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > > The only objection i've heard from gnustep.pc is "Its not the way 
> > > GNUstep stores information".
> >
> > Here is a refresher --
> >
> > 1. it adds an external dependency upon which *everything* would depend
>
> an entirely optional dependency, people could continue sourcing GNUstep.sh.
>
> > 2. it is slower
>
> -make is not a bottleneck...
> for example on my machine....
> -make building base here takes 2 minutes 3 seconds...
> make when base is already built takes 2 seconds..
> where adding this stuff to make would be 0.006th of a second per 
> invocation of pkg-config/gnustep-config
>
> this argument is hogwash.
>
> > 3. it is designed for something else (which adds complexity)
>
> It does exactly the same thing gnustep-config.sh does.
> that adds no complexity...
>
> > 4. it requires rewriting and redesigning stuff with no clear advantages
>
> there are clear advantages...
> now I can add stuff to configure for things *using* gnustep-make which 
> attempts to see if
> GNUstep libraries exist.
>
> there could be a way to bootstrap gnustep-make to "just work" without 
> any gnustep specific
> environment variables.
>
> > > The objection i have with GNUstep.conf is it isolates gnustep from 
> > > the rest of the world.
> >
> > I find that objection vague.  Can you explain the practical meaning of
> > "it isolates gnustep from the rest of the world" ?
> >
> >
> > It's a text file in /etc/GNUstep.conf containing something like
>
> it can be set by --with-config-file when configuring make.
> If this is done, GNUstep can find GNUstep.conf without setting
> GNUSTEP_CONFIG_FILE... GNUSTEP_CONFIG_FILE is
> provided to override the location of /etc/GNUstep.conf if you
> didn't change the default GNUstep.conf location.
>
> I refuse to rely on a feature which
> a) 99% of the time is fine.
> b) the 1% of the time works unless your relying on GNUstep.conf being 
> findable
>
> theres no way to reliably locate it if the caller was not generated by 
> GNUstep-make's
> configure script.

That's a chicken and egg problem with every configuration. If I compile 
apache in /opt the configuration of apache will live in /opt/etc/apache, 
or /opt/etc/httpd, which is not the system default location. Because I 
choose it to be different, hence the need for a configure option to 
point to the config file.

The same goes for the .pc files. Ever tried to build the pkg-package 
supported libraries in non-default places (like in 
/usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Libraries)... then you also have to set the 
PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable to make make it all happen.

Same goes for ldconfig... it per default only searches the FHS default 
places. Hence the need for /etc/ld.so.conf... but what if you configure 
ldconfig for /usr/GNUstep/System/Configuration as the /etc directory.

What I am trying to say is that every system that you invent to do 
"automagic" for paths, libraries etc. will rely on defaults and needs 
environment vars for the exceptions.

I doubt you will ever find a package that solves all problems.

Just my 2 cents.

Dennis