[asterisk-dev] Question (and offer) re autotools (autoconf/automake)

[Tilghman Lesher]

On Tuesday 14 February 2006 13:48, Jeffrey C. Ollie wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-02-14 at 10:22 -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 14, 2006 at 10:05:24AM -0700, Charl Coetzee wrote:
> > > We're corporately considering "translating" the current Asterisk
> > > makefiles to autotools, and  contributing this back to the
> > > community. (In fact I already have tacit approval for this).
> >
> > once again speaking for myself, usually these things are judged by
> > the result. I suspect that if you come out with a reasonably small
> > config that works on multiple platforms and is readable and
> > maintainable, people may accept or use it. If, on the other hand,
> > it's 2k lines of m4 macros, well...
>
> With Asterisk/autoconf, it's been kind of a chicken and egg problem. 
> No one has wanted to spend the time writing autoconf files for
> Asterisk because of comments like this.  And until someone takes the
> time to write some autoconf files it's hard to convince people like
> you that it's worth it.

The primary reason that is has not occurred is this:  please take a look
at the names of people in the past who have said that they are willing
to contribute the conversion to autotools.  With the notable exception
of Kevin, they are all no longer involved in the community, which is
the real fear:  that we will get a conversion, they'll disappear in a
few months time, and we'll be left trying to support something that even
its adherents admit can be a massive burden when things don't work
correctly.

_That_ is the reason we haven't moved to autotools.  This is also why I
haven't raised an objection to Kevin doing the conversion; unlike all of
the others, I have a reasonable confidence that he won't be gone in
three months time.

If you haven't been involved in development, if you aren't talking with
other developers on a daily basis, if you are the latest
Jonny-come-lately, I don't even want to hear of the package du jour that
you want to foist on the community.  Once you've been around a bit and
have contributed AND supported your contributions over several months,
then and only then is the time that you can suggest major changes to the
way things are done around here.  Until then, don't expect to be taken
seriously if you suggest something of this ilk.

-- 
Tilghman