Re: AC_PROG_FPP

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello,

* Dr Magnus Hagdorn wrote on Tue, Apr 25, 2006 at 10:22:16AM CEST:
>
> I am still not quite happy with the Fortran preprocessor support and
> googling around I found AC_PROG_FPP [1]. Also the starlink [2] guys seem
> to have included AC_PROG_FPP in their patched version of autoconf. I
> seem to remember that they mention these patches exist in the official
> autoconf tree. I was wondering what the status was since this is really
> useful functionality and I would rather use an officially blessed (even
> if it is a development snapshot) autoconf than maintaining my own tree.

No, they are not in any GNU Autoconf version.  Yes, I think they are
probably quite useful, and some of that Starlink functionality would be
great to have in GNU Autoconf.  While Martin Wilck has copyright papers
in place, and the patch[1] looks very reasonable, it needs at least a
bit more work and polish, for example some forward porting, testsuite
exposure and ChangeLog entries.  Other possible additions from Starlink
would need consent and assignment by the respective copyright holders
(but some of the names certainly look familiar from some GNU lists).

I would very much like to work with the people in question to integrate
it in Autoconf soon after 2.60; certainly this code needs a stabilization
period after it's been added: we do not have very many Fortran testers
ATM (I for one have access to few compilers only); and this is another
reason I'd like to avoid it before 2.60.

These additions would be a good incentive to beef up Automake Fortran
support as well; but that certainly needs some more discussion.

Cheers,
Ralf

> [1] http://sources.redhat.com/ml/autoconf-patches/2000-07/msg00334.html
> [2]
> http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/norman/star/ssn78/ssn78.htx/N-a2b5.html