Re: [Groff] Tiny make patch: avoid Netpbm dependency

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> wrote:
 |>|installed to build the info files, or `autoconf' to generate the
 |>|configure script.  People who check out from the git *must* have
 |>|all
 |>  
 |> Hah!  I was really thankful that the generated `configure' became
 |> part of the git(1) repo -- *thank you* for this decision!
 |
 |Well, I consider this a remnant from the past.  IMHO, groff's building

(gulp)

 |system should be completely rewritten to use automake, autoconf, and
 |gnulib, abandoning a prebuilt `configure' in the git repository also.

Hearing this is a pity.  Definetely hoping for a future maintainer
to think about this again. :)

 |> I will not start a rant on one of the most horrifying pieces of
 |> software ever written (GNU autotools), because i see that even
 |> a complicated piece of software like GNU Troff can be driven with
 |> a 128KB m4/ directory.
 | 
 |Actually, I like automake + autoconf a lot.  Of course, this is
 |something personal – people grown up with, say, cmake will heavily
 |disagree.

Absolutely personal.  You wouldn't believe the amount of disbelief
in my eyes as i've read that.

 |>|  touch gnu.eps
 |>  
 |> Would it make sense to send a patch that does this if at the end of
 |> all the conditions there is still no `gnu.eps'?
 | 
 |No, thanks.  Instead, you might contribute a patch to implement a
 |`--without-doc' configure switch that completely disables the
 |generation of documentation files. :-)

Really?  Hm, i'll give that a try in the upcoming days and report
back.

 |    Werner

--steffen