Re: Future of autotools

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> If ftinspect and, potentially, other software is not going to be
>> built via autotools, is there a case to move to another build
>> system?

Well, yes.  Meson will eventually become the main tool for building
FreeType, I think (or rather, it definitely won't become CMake as the
default).  However, cleaning up the build system was/is a GSoC
project, so nobody else touched it in earnest.  In particular, I am
not a specialist for Meson; additionally, Meson itself is still quite
a moving target.

> That's a bit unsatisfactory. Personally I only use the autotools/make
> to build. Also as far as I know, last I heard there is(was?) a bug of
> ttdebug being mis-built by meson - it is missing a -DUNIX or something
> of that sort to control the command buffering.

Yep, https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/freetype/freetype-demos/-/issues/24

> I sort of feel like raising it from time to time when the GSoC
> students are updating the build system "have a look at fixing that
> too..." but ultimately it sounds like dumping uninteresting/tedious
> work on young people.

It seems so, unfortunately.

> I think Werner would respond at some point writing "patches welcome"
> for building ftinspect with autotools :-).

You are reading my mind :-)


    Werner