Subject: bug#13378: [IMPORTANT] Make the 'subdir-objects' setup the default, and only available one

From: Stefano Lattarini <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:32:26 +0100

On 01/08/2013 11:03 PM, Peter Rosin wrote:
>
> [BIG SNIP]
>
>> Then again, in the longer term, wouldn't it be better to provide a
>> (GNU or non-GNU) package meant to wrap all this MSVC incompatibilities
>> in a secluded place, instead of having Automake chase all this
>> intricacies with mixed fortune?  After all, we don't have random users
>> building on MSYS with MSVC -- the users interested in doing so should
>> know what they are doing, so we could ask them to install this
>> hypothetical "wrapping package" before trying any such compilation.
>> It might also be made part of MSYS itself eventually, if it proves
>> itself on field.
>>
>> Good idea, bad idea, or simple wishful thinking?
> 
> I think it's a bad idea.  Try finding a canonical cccl script on the
> Internet...  Trying to do this outside of autotools will just grow
> forks.
>
Then what about doing it in the Autotools?  That is, let's continue
to carry the ar-lib, compile, etc. scripts in our tree, let's continue
to distribute them in the client packages tarballs, but admit that
the setups they cater for are today special and/or corner case enough
that we don't need to "automagically" detect them; instead, let's the
user explicitly ask for their use (with an environment variable? with
a configure options? not sure).  We'll have less time-wasting and
complex probing logic, but still a tight integration, and no risk
of proliferating forks.

Of course, this could create yet more compatibility and/or transition
and/or deprecation headaches.  So, all things considered, it might
be a poor trade-off.  Hmmm...

Well, let's put this idea in the back-burner for now.  We still have
a confirmed bug to fix, before doing anything else ;-)

Regards,
 Stefano