autotools to meson: policy?

[tlaronde at kergis.com]

On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 11:21:40AM -0800, Alan Coopersmith wrote:
> On 12/13/24 23:06, tlaronde at kergis.com wrote:
> > - Has the meson framework to provide at least the configuration
> > flexibility provided by autotools, so that whoever is compiling Xorg
> > could, in the future, configure it the way it managed to do with
> > autotools?
> > 	=> See: http://notes.kergis.com/x11_building.html
> > 		for notes about differences or misses in variable
> > 		configurations.
> 
> We have no way of knowing what people actually use, but many of the Xorg
> maintainers are also involved in building packages for their distros, so
> we rely on them to provide feedback about what their distros need.
> 
> Beyond that, that's why we usually provide an overlap period with both
> autotools & meson in a release, so that users can report if we've missed
> something in meson that they need, and we can add it before removing the
> autotools setup.
> 
> > - What to do when python byte-compiling is involved? The problem is
> > that it is _not_ cross-compilation safe (the byte-compiled version is
> > not portable and there is no cross-python).
> 
> It doesn't matter.  xcbproto is the only package that installs a python module,
> and that module is only run on the build system, not the target, so it never
> needs to be cross-compiled.  If it did, python will just-in-time compile it
> when it's run - provided precompiled .pyc files is just a time saver, not a
> requirement to use it.

I have modified my proposal by incorporating what Dylan Baker
suggested in part, with two exceptions:

1) The meson-python module is a PITA. One can not request several
level of optimizations (when byte-compiling) but only one, and this
has to be done at setup time. One can not request to search for a
version >= some_minimal_version but can only verify, after, that the
one returned matches the needs. Configuring the install directories is
a PITA too;
	 => I keep what I have done and will not rewrite it;

2) The meson-pkgconfig module now throws warnings /threats about
defining 'datadir' (starting from 0.62, these default dirs are added
by default). Since we do not know what meson will add or if it will
accept to add, or modify etc. it is not possible to predict what will
end in the pc file, hence ruining comparison with the autotools
generated one.

	=> I keep as is what I have written and will not rewrite it.

Meson started simple and now starts to "know better than you". People
will regret imake some day...

FWIW (and for whoever has commit access) xcbproto meson support is
successfully checked by C.I. and the product is equal to what is
produced by the autotools. The merge request is still valid.

My only next intervention on the module will be to allow to generate
the src without needing python.
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ kergis +dot+ com>
                     http://www.kergis.com/
                    http://kertex.kergis.com/
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