From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: `make' written in elisp Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 00:10:55 +0100 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1104793897 26950 80.91.229.6 (3 Jan 2005 23:11:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 23:11:37 +0000 (UTC) Cc: rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jan 04 00:11:19 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1ClbM6-0000AT-00 for ; Tue, 04 Jan 2005 00:11:19 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1ClbXH-0000yN-Lc for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:22:51 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1ClbX9-0000xR-Gi for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:22:43 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1ClbX8-0000wy-Ok for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:22:42 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1ClbX7-0000wt-Ri for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:22:42 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1ClbLq-0000oW-8h for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:11:02 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lola.goethe.zz) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1ClbFU-0005b9-Lx; Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:04:29 -0500 Original-To: Ralf Angeli In-Reply-To: (Ralf Angeli's message of "Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:28:05 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/21.3.50 (gnu/linux) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:31771 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:31771 Ralf Angeli writes: > * Richard Stallman (2005-01-03) writes: > >> At least it should be able to call things like `configure' >> which is a mandatory step in the build process of packages like >> AUCTeX and preview-latex. During this step the values of some >> important variables are determined and written to the package's >> site configuration file. >> >> Why is it important for Emacs Lisp packages to do that sort of >> thing? > > Automatically determining variables specific to the site the package > is being installed at configuration time is a means to cut down load > times. There are things where it is not efficient or feasible to > carry out the respective tests each time the package is loaded. > > As an example, in AUCTeX we are currently using `configure' to > determine locations where TeX trees are located. The resulting > value is used at runtime for speeding up file searches. I am not actually convinced that this is a good idea: I'd prefer it that _if_ AUCTeX is made to match some package layout, then the whole installation/configuration will be performed by Lisp. Probably cached in customize variables, and with an option to redo the detection on demand (in case you want to experiment with different setups of TeX distributions or similar). I'd really like it if we could skip all of the autoconf magic (which is particularly painful and error-prone dealing with paths with spaces and backslashes) for a reasonably easy Elisp solution. It would appear that with some of the mentioned functions in this thread, this might be possible. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum