Re: pkg-config support for guile

[Marius Vollmer]

Greg Troxel <address@hidden> writes:

>   [I sent a patch to add pkg-config support.]
> 
>   I don't think we should offer two ways to get configuration
>   information about Guile.  When pkgconfig is better than our current
>   method, we should use it exclusively.  When not, we should keep our
>   current stuff.
> 
> pkgconfig is better in that programs that use guile will not have to
> include a guile-specific m4 fragment into configure - there is a
> standard pkgconfig m4 fragment that suffices to link all programs that
> use pkgconfig for config info.
>
> But programs needing GUILE_MODULE_FOO will still need the guile m4.
> This is really a separate problem from guile-config - using guile as a
> scripting language rather than a libary, so not trying to use
> pkgconfig here seems fine.
> 
> I don't understand why you think there should not be two ways.  Users
> can use whichever way they like better, and this makes guile more
> friendly.

Yes, I agree.  I wasn't precise enough when I said "there should not
be two ways to get confiuration information about Guile".  I was
really only thinking about how we maintain the code for exporting this
configuration information, not about how users will access it.  That
is, my only worry is that when add support for pkg-config, and
continue to offer guile-config (which we should), then there is the
risk that the two mechanism diverge over time when they are separately
implemented.  There should only be a single point in the code where
the exported configuration information is defined and both user
interfaces (pkg-config and guile-config) should draw from that source.

For example, the "Libs:" line in guile.pc needs to stay in sync with
the corresponding stuff in guile-config.  This should happen
automatically.

Also, we will need documentation for how to use pkg-config with Guile,
maybe with a pointer to generic pkg-config.

That's what keeps me from applying the patch right away (and I hope
others agree that it is not unreasonable).

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