Re: automake test driver for Guile scheme patch review

[Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be>]

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Op 19-11-2023 om 18:17 schreef Karl Berry:
> Hello Guile folk - back in May 2016, Mathieu Lirzin submitted a patch to
> add a test driver for Guile Scheme to Automake.
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2016-05/msg00000.html
> 
> It was never committed. It's been seven+ years, so before doing so, I
> wanted to check if it was still useful, and valid. I know next to
> nothing about Guile or Guix myself.
> 
> Please advise? If this is the wrong list, please forward? --thanks, karl.
> 
> (I'm not on this list, so please cc me with any replies.)
> 
Useful, but I don't think it should be in Automake, because then the 
test driver is harder to update and it would add yet another source of 
bundling.  Instead, I think the test driver should be a separate 
package/program (with support in Automake for invoking the driver) or 
part of Guile (maybe a "guild test" subcommand or something like that).

I don't have any advise on how to get the automake maintainers to 
actually respond to the patch beyond ‘maybe try again?’.

Also, the test driver has been updated since then.  As far as I can 
tell, Guix is currently the upstream of the test driver (see: 
build-aux/test-driver.scm) -- while part of Guix, it should be 
straightforward enough to only install the test driver itself in 
distributions, without compiling or installing the rest of Guix.

(See, e.g. https://issues.guix.gnu.org/58365#9, where test-driver.scm 
(from Guix) is packaged as a Guix package, albeit not the best example 
because both are Guix.)

If you retry merging it into Automake, I recommend picking up the new 
version from Guix.

Best regards,
Maxime Devos

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