Re: HTML format documentation

[Richard Stallman]

    By giving ultimate flexibility in the way you describe the devloper is
    also free to muck with the defaults and to make even greater mistakes in
    mis-classifying the files he's trying to install.

Developers can make all sorts of mistakes.  The mistakes just have to
be fixed.  Developers who ignore or misunderstand the rules for what
files should go where can put files in the wrong places no matter what
the rules are.

So I don't think this is a valid argument.

    it is autoconf which must learn the proper defaults
    for each kind of system

It could be useful for autoconf to know the defaults at least for some
kinds of systems.  We don't necessarily have to undertake to keep up
with them for all the systems anybody uses, though.  That could be a
lot of work; let's not rush into such a large commitment.  We should
start by supporting the GNU system and its variants, the GNU/Linux
systems.  Then we could support the other free systems, *BSD.