Re: guile-lib - devel branch - patch 4 of 11

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2016 17:26:35 -0300
> From: David Pirotte <david@altosw.be>
> Cc: guile-devel@gnu.org
> 
> > > 2.69 is the latest stable, available since April 2012
> 
> > If there are known problems with older versions that get in the way, I
> > agree.  Are there?
> 
> Are there?

That's what I asked.  Do you know the answer?

> > Because people might have older versions installed, and it's a nuisance to have to
> > upgrade unrelated tools in your development environment just because you need to
> > build a newer version of Guile.
> 
> I would not qualify autoconf/automake of 'unrelated' but 'essential' tools, and
> would never call 'nuisance' the fact that you ask a user to be in the 'conditions'
> that guarantee a proper build. I can not guarantee this proper build with earlier
> versions, I don't have time neither any wish to maintain older version of these
> essential tools.

We already guaranteed a proper build with older versions, since Guile
builds now with whatever minimal versions we were requiring.  So this
problem does not exist, and will not exist, unless we deliberately
start using a newer version.

> > Besides, other packages might required older versions.
> 
> Are you aware of any incompatibilities between 2.69 and earlier 2.x version(s) of
> autoconf?

That's not the point.  If a package requires a certain version, my
best bet is to use that version.

And some packages (e.g., GDB) indeed require use of a specific version
in order to make sure changes in the derived files are consistent.