Re: `make' written in elisp

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     Assuming the `make' part is solved by install.el or elmake, we "only"
>     need an Elisp-based substitute for `configure'.
>
> That is too heavy-weight; I am not interested in installing that kind
> of package system in Emacs.

Well, at least a standard function for finding the path name of an
executable in PATH and/or in general a file in a set of locations
might be nice to have.

Of course a complete autoconf system would be ridiculous.  I guess
that once we start talking about actually compiling stuff (and
autoconf's main point is about figuring compiler specialties), we
might as well assume a complete GNU build system to be present, so we
would not need to implement this in Emacs.

But as long as we are just talking about figuring out some locations
and the availability/name of some executables, there is little point
not to have a few available functions for that.  Even though it might
in some cases be more convenient if they run at runtime instead of
install time, making it possible to switch between setups/PATHs
without reinstalling/reconfiguring (or have an explicit command
PACKAGENAME-reconfigure for reconfiguring?).

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum