request to re-order configure

[Mike Bushroe <mbushroe@gmail.com>]

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I started trying to load a new version of a package that needed guile.
Since then I spent all day and all night in package dependency hell and
still don't have guile close to loading. Guile takes a *lot* of other
packages to load. And that after all is what code re-use is all about, plus
having only one chunk of code to correct bug fixes that then helps many
applications. And the README file does list 7 major dependencies which
should give the user a head start. But even the list of major dependencies
were each a major undertaking and eventually I stopped trying to find them,
wander the website to find which file(s) actually had the elements that
were needed and how download those files from *that* site and how to
install them and how many further recursions down the package dependency
tree I had to go to them to final compilation of a named dependency that I
eventually stopped and foolishly hoped for the best. And I realize that 90%
or more of the problem is that I am trying to avoid Unity like the plague
and am still running the unsupported 10.0 so all of my packages are out of
date and apt-get install doesn't see any of the newer packages either so
they all have to be installed, and dependencies satisfied manually. And
when I finally got around to gettext it had the longest configure-make-make
install of anything I can remember (is it the front end for Deep Thought?),
so I went to bed at 1AM with the install just starting and this morning the
screen saver wouldn't quit, power cycling it looks like the gnome theme
changed and the taskbar applet is missing (no tab to re-maximize a window)
and none of the help windows open to verify which version of Ubuntu and
Gnome am I running after gettext finished.


   But ignoring my fumbling around in the dark my original request was to
re-consider the order of tests made once the configure file it built.
Currently many of the long and arduous dependency installs are not checked
until near the end, about 10 minutes down the line on my laptop. This means
that for every one of the listed major dependencies that I didn't install,
didn't get to correctly install, or got a version too far back, it would
add another 10 minute ./configure run just to tell me what major package to
work on loading next. Then another 10 minute run to go one line further to
report the next missing piece. So on top of the time it took to install the
next piece I was adding the 10 minute run of guile's configure for each
attempt.

   My suggestion is to try and move the package dependency tests closer to
the beginning, especially for packages that will have a lot of dependency
requirements of the their own. I realize that before you can start
something fancy like checking presence and versions of packages will
require first testing incrementally all the tools needed to do that. But I
think it could come before the long list of which functions are not macro
calls or perhaps even the compiler tests which I would expect to either all
work as a group or fail at the presence and version tests.

   A side note is that the README mentioned an INSTALL file with more
details but I did not see an install file in the download I got. Also, I am
old school and had always used ./configure-make-make install and I had
never heard of autogen.sh, automake, autoconf let alone knew how to use
them to produce the nice, familiar configure script that I am accustomed
to. It would be nice if the README, or even the INSTALL file if included
could have the have the basic command sequence that starts with autogen.sh
for those of us who haven't seen this before.


  Sorry, I always seem to get long winded, especially when I want to make
sure that each step is accurately and completely described. Ah well, now to
wage war with gnome and Lucid to try and get my minimized windows back!


Mike

-- 
"Creativity is intelligence having fun." — Albert Einstein

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