Re: [PATCH 00/15] Add libunistring-optional module

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 05/19/2010 10:19 AM, Bruno Haible wrote:
> > 2) What's the purpose of gl_LIBUNISTRING_VERSION_CMP_ORIG?
>
> It serves as a backup, for the case that some day we need to pass computed
> versions instead of literal versions.

So we can delete it, git will find it and the ChangeLog will say what 
happened.

> > Why not add an
> >
> > AS_LITERAL_IF([$1], , [m4_fatal([Argument of ]dnl
> > [[gl_LIBUNISTRING_VERSION_CMP] must be a literal])])
> >
> > and drop the macro for the non-literal case?
>
> Because that's what I call a "premature optimization" (in the sense of Knuth).

I disagree that anything that removes more lines than it adds is 
premature optimization.  Also anything that adds error messages for 
possibly erroneous input.

But if you want to remove gl_LIBUNISTRING_VERSION_CMP_ORIG without 
adding the error message, that's great. :-)

> And AS_LITERAL_IF was not documented in Autoconf < 2.64.

gnulib allows you to program (mostly) to Autoconf 2.64 interfaces.

Paolo