Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]> wrote:
> I believe that a set of makefiles that would handle all of the targets > of a project like groff wouldn't take much more than that. It might be > a few hundred kB. If it's well organized, it can be maintainable. > > Because the makefile language is so simple, bugs are easy to spot and > fix, compared to autotools (possibly automake, but I can't distinguish > them enough). I don’t know. Can a Makefile check for the presence of certain libraries or other apps and fail gracefully (by which I mean exiting with a message like “You need app X, plus libraries Y and Z, installed to successfully compile this.”)? That’s one of the things that “makes" me appreciate taking that extra step of typing `.configure` before make. Now, a lot of older software (or modern, simple programs) won't need that complexity, and a well-written INSTALL file can call out necessary Makefile edits before letting ‘er rip. Developers putting in the effort up front save users a lot more effort on the other side. — Larry
