Re: menu driven configure-script

[Philip Graham Willoughby]

On 2003-06-07 19:05:47 +0000, Mikael Hansen wrote:
> Why not let autoconf create a configure-script with the possibilbity to
> set all the options via a menu (like "make menuconfig" for the linux kernel)?

Configure scripts need to run on many more platforms than the linux
kernel config program.  It is not possible to do a menu system with
standard shell commands, you need something like a C program to
interface with the terminal (probably using curses).  I suppose it would
be possible for configure to look for a C compiler and lib[n]curses, and
then compile a c program to do the menu stuff.  It could be useful for
newcomers, but it should not be the default...

Or, you could write a wrapper to configure which ran 

configure --help

and parsed the output.  Of course this would require all scripts to use
a standard way of showing the sensible options for multiple choice
options, and you'd probably want ``advanced'' parameters to be tagged
differently.

However, most packages _do_ follow the same conventions, so it ought to
be possible.

Regards,

Philip Willoughby

Systems Programmer, Department of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK
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