Somebody can write an AC_CHARSET_{ASCII,EBCDIC} macro that embodies that test.
It gets carried around inside autoconf so improvements/changes can be easily used, and then it gets dropped in to config.h (does '-DCHARSET_EBCDIC=('A'==0xXY) work as a CFLAG item if config.h isn't being used?). Best of both worlds? H -- > On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 03:49:31PM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote: > > Yes, but Autoconf-based tools that run on EBCDIC mainframes (e.g. GNU > > make) don't seem to need special Autoconf support. EBCDICness is > > easily checked at compile-time already, so I don't offhand see why > > this is an Autoconf issue. > > 1. Autoconf seems philosophically the Right Place for it, since > it's where all the rest of that work is being done. > > 2. More practically, doing it once, right, in Autoconf means that > everyone else doesn't have to reinvent the wheel (perhaps > incorrectly). (Suppose that for some reason we can't imagine, > the 'A'==0xXY test turns out to be insufficient; it'll only > have to get fixed once.) > > Your C-based approach looks the right way to implement the test, > given concerns about echo portability, but that test could live > as easily in an Autoconf macro as in the application(s). > > Purely theoretical for me -- I don't expect to ever use an IBM > mainframe again -- but it seems to be of practical import to some > folks. > > -- > > | | /\ > |-_|/ > Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > | | / > The world has been attacked. The world must respond ... [but] we must > be guided by a commitment to do what works in the long run, not by what > makes us feel better in the short run. > - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada