Re: cache directory is not removed

[Sam Steingold]

> * In message <address@hidden>
> * On the subject of "Re: cache directory is not removed"
> * Sent on Thu, 6 Jun 2002 12:46:15 -0500
> * Honorable Bill Wendling <address@hidden> writes:
>
> BTW, the removal of automatically generating a config.cache file by
> default was a bad idea, in my opinion...

absolutely!!

> Why was config.cache deemed removable but the autom4te.cache directory
> isn't?
> Very strange...

not at all.  this is a common case of "developer's egotism": "what
matters for me, matters for all, what does not matter for me, does not
matter for anyone" (no offense please - we all think like that
sometimes)

autoconf _developers_ run _autoconf_ often, thus they want it to run
fast, while they run _configure_ rarely, so they do not care about its
speed. 
autoconf _users_ run _autoconf_ rarely, so they do not care about its
speed (but they do care about the junk it leaves behind!), but they run
_configure_ (relatively) often, so they do care about its speed and
they appreciate the speedup they get from config.cache.

think of your _users_!
your users _want_ config.cache and
they do _not_ want autom4te.cache!

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds) running RedHat7.2 GNU/Linux
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