Re: new image library "requirements"

[Richard Stallman]

    > Yes, where does it all end?  Emacs will build without alsa headers but
    > presumably that leads to some loss of functionality (playing midi files,
    > maybe?).  Should configure throw an error when these aren't found?

The answer to that question isn't a theoretical one.  It is a matter
of how important a given feature is as a feature of Emacs.

For instance, for sound: how important a problem is it that people
build Emacs and don't get sound, just because they didn't have the
right headers installed?  On the other side, how big an inconvenience
is it to be pressured into installing the headers, when you didn't
want sound anyway?