Re: [Automake-NG] [PATCH 02/15] [ng] vars: get rid of VAR_SORTED type

[Stefano Lattarini]

Hi Akim.

On 05/25/2012 03:20 PM, Akim Demaille wrote:
> 
> Le 25 mai 2012 à 13:38, Stefano Lattarini a écrit :
> 
>> It's basically unused, and the tiny cosmetic enhancements it offers
>> are not worth the complication of having yet another variable type.
> 
> Note that it is sometimes extremely valuable to add complications
> to ensure that the output is deterministic, and, for instance, does
> not depend on some hash random order.
>
This is a good point; in the present case, however:

  - the testsuite continued to pass after my change, so I assumed
    everything was OK; if not, that's a weakness in the testsuite
    that should be fixed

  - VAR_SORTED was only used to ensure the $(RECURSIVE_TARGETS)
    variable was sorted; if we truly need it to be, we should
    use $(sort) to ensure that at runtime.

> This makes the use of simple tools such as diff possible.  This is
> a useful ally during overhauls that affect the order in which
> things are discovered.
> 
I'm not sure I follow here...  You mean we should keep extra complications
in Automake to cater to those people still keeping the autotools-generated
files committed in their VCS repos?

Regards,
  Stefano