[article] trimming down autoconf's configure scripts by using pkg-config

[Gabor Gombas]

On Tue, Mar 28, 2006 at 03:26:21AM +0200, Enrico Weigelt wrote:

> Why can't we just define strict interfaces and maintain an database
> for each target system, which tells the buildsystem what features 
> the target system has. Most of that could be done via pkg-config.

Yes, pkg-config is nice, but even if someone actively starts converting
the thousands of existing software packages to pkg-config (which does
not seem to be the case right now), it will take several years before it
gets enough adoption to be actually usable. On the contrast, autoconf
works NOW.

Also, remember that even pkg-config has some of the problems of libtool
(like incorrect/incomplete handling of run-time shared library
dependencies).

Gabor

-- 
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     MTA SZTAKI Computer and Automation Research Institute
                Hungarian Academy of Sciences
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