Re: conditionally compiling C++ code

[Patrick Welche]

On Tue, Apr 29, 2003 at 06:12:15AM -0400, Thomas E. Dickey wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, Bob Proulx wrote:
> 
> > Thomas Dickey wrote:
> > > Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> ...nonsense
> > As I read Peter's post I believe the point was that the tool was
> > generally considered to require readline functionality.  Not having it
> 
> readline is a library (if the configure script fails, readline wouldn't
> be linked except if the configure script is doubly-incorrect).
> 
> The supposedly analogous example of an external program is implausible
> as well (it's common practice to distinguish between nice "optional"
> stuff versus essentials - configure is properly used for the latter).

It seems that we are trying to differentiate between libraries which are
- required     (error: won't work without it)
- recommended  (warning: some usual/useful features won't work)
- optional     (just don't link with it, user probably won't see the difference)

How about another variable to AC_CHECK_LIB, which
if "x$6" = "xREQUIRED" && test $ac_somelib = none; then
  AC_MSG_ERROR...
where variable is REQUIRED, RECOMMENDED, (OPTIONAL | "")

?

Cheers,

Patrick