Parrot will follow the './configure && make && make test && make
install' process, with the following twists:
1) ./configure is a perl5 script
2) ./configure.in is compatible with GNU autoconf.
3) ./autoconf will be a perl5 script that performs a subset of what GNU
autoconf does.
We shouldn't need to ship autoconf, but it would be nice.
Hence the build process will still be pure perl, but users will be able
to use a build method they're familiar with, and it will be more
portable than GNU autoconf. In fact, it should be able to work on VMS,
where GNU autoconf is many versions behind.
The current version of autoconf.pl handles the following GNU autoconf
macros:
AC_INIT
AC_PROG_CC
AC_PATH_PROG
AC_CONFIG_HEADER
AC_CHECK_HEADERS
AC_OUTPUT
Over the weekend, I'll get it to the point where it can do a complete
parrot build. Again, it will operate almost exactly like GNU autoconf,
but will be in pure perl5. Since the current parrot package doesn't
conform to autoconf standards, it will require some changes to the
parrot source tree.
That will mainly involve changing markers in the source files that
currently look like '${foo}' to '@foo@', and changing file names from
'config_h.in' to 'config.h.in'. The autoconf and configure files won't
depend upon any settings from the user's perl binaries, because that
could be misleading. The ./configure file will make all of its own
decisions about the environment.
--Jeff
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
