Re: require GNU make to build emacs?

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu>
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:22:41 -0800
> 
> Yes, IMO there's a good reason.  Being able to use conditionals,
> includes, and other advanced features should allow us to avoid using the
> C preprocessor to create Makefiles

The way to avoid using cpp is to autoconfiscate our configury, so that
the configure script produces src/Makefile from src/Makefile.in.  (Not
that I think this is such an urgent task, given that the current setup
works so well and that the rate of new OSes and/or changes in the
existing OSes is so low lately.)

> and to make the bootstrap a bit more reliable (we have way too many
> parallel make failures and other flakiness).

Failures with parallel builds are probably due to little use, not
non-GNU Make.  Most, if not all, of those I remember were fixed easily
by adding missing dependencies.  But if you have specific examples for
these problems, by all means post them.

>   > > Having a modern make should help simplify the makefiles and maybe the
>   > > whole build process.
>   > 
>   > Is that the only reason, or are there real problems with non-GNU Make
>   > in our build process?
> 
> The fact that we only use the most basic make features is a problem.

Again, specific problems, beyond those solved by autoconf, would be
appreciated.