Hi Lars,
| I've written a macro which makes it easier to write more flexible
| autoconf-macros, and I thought some of you might find it interesting.
It's interesting work which might be useful someday in Autoconf, but
for now, I don't think we want to introduce ``complications''. In
fact, we're trying to simplify the use of Autoconf, even if it means
doing too much work.
| Any comments?
Yes, I have a few comments on your code which you might want to know.
| define([$IM_STRING_COMPACT],[dnl
| patsubst(patsubst([$1],[[
| ]+],[ ]),[^ \| $],[])])
This is wrong, you have two evaluation here (two patsubst), hence we
need to quote twice. Your macro will certainly die if there are
commas in $1, and will behaves incorrectly if $a happens to contains
something which is a macro name.
Also, it is (IMHO), a bad habit to use [dnl as you do. Some day, you
will be trapped.
define([$IM_STRING_COMPACT],
[patsubst(patsubst([[$1]],[[
]+],[ ]),[^ \| $],[])])
| define([$IM_STRING_WORDCOUNT_COMPACT],[dnl
| builtin([eval],(1+len(patsubst([$1],[[^ ]+],[_])))/2)])
[[$1]]
| define([$IM_DEFINE_VARIABLE],[dnl
| dnl errprint([define( $1, $2 )
$ M4='m4 --trace $IM_DEFINE_VARIABLE -d' autoconf
is a better means to trace SIM_PARSE_MODIFIER_LIST
| dnl ])dnl
| define([$1],[$2])
| ])
| [errprint([SIM_PARSE_MODIFIER_LIST: invalid variable (arg 3): "$2"
You should give more details, such as __file__ and __line__. Or use
libm4's m4_warn.
| define([$IM_PUSHDEF_MODIFIERS],[dnl
| ifelse(indir([$IM_STRING_WORDCOUNT_COMPACT],[$1]),
Why do you `indir' all the time? Oh!, yes, it's a dollar, not an `S'
:) Well, for legibility, it might be better that you reserve your
name space and use it:
_SIM_STRING_WORDCOUNT_COMPACT
or something.
| define([$IM_PARSE_MODIFIER_LIST],[dnl
| pushdef([wordcount],builtin([eval],(indir([$IM_STRING_WORDCOUNT],[$2]))))dnl
m4_eval is defined in CVS Autoconf, it's much easier to read.
| [ifelse($4, , , $4)],
Second $4 should be quoted.
Akim
