Re: removing stdint's dependency on wchar

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Paul,

> md5 includes stdint.h for uint32_t, and the stdint
> module depends on wchar for WCHAR_MIN etc; but md5 does
> not need WCHAR_MIN etc.
>
> Here's a proposed patch to make stdint configure faster,
> primarily by removing its dependency on wchar.

I think this patch would make gnulib harder to use. So far, it's easy
to remember: "I want a working stdint.h - so I need module stdint
(or stdint-posix if that exists)". It should stay like this.

Instead I would suggest that you create a new module that provides less
guarantees than the 'stdint' module, and let 'md5' depend on that.

Two candidates come to mind:
  a) A module 'stdint-simple' that deals only with the types int*, uint*
     and their respective macros, but not with ptrdiff_t, sig_atomic_t,
     wchar_t, wint_t.
  b) A module 'stdint-types' that guarantees the types of <stdint.h>
     but not their respective macros.

The 'stdint' module would then depend on that module, and in m4/stdint.m4
there would be two entry points gl_STDINT_H and gl_STDINT_H_SIMPLE or
gl_STDINT_H_TYPES.

Bruno
-- 
In memoriam Khosrow Golsorkhi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_Golsorkhi>