Re: AC_CONFIG_LINKS and MSVC

[Keith Marshall]

On Friday 14 April 2006 11:43 pm, David Byron wrote:
> > AC_CONFIG_LINKS is not so widely used, and neither is
> > `cccl', so it is possible that you are the first person to
> > face this problem.
>
> This isn't just a cccl problem, but a problem for anyone using MSVC.  I
> guess using autoconf with MSVC pretty much implies cccl, but just in
> case.

... but it *doesn't* imply using Cygwin to run the configure script!

Isn't this more a problem with the way Cygwin abuses *.lnk files, which 
Win32 designates as `shortcuts', to simulate symbolic links?  A Win32 
shortcut is *not* a symbolic link, in the *nix sense.  Win32 doesn't 
support symbolic links, but autoconf under Cygwin thinks that it does, 
because Cygwin makes it appear so.   Only Cygwin programs can comprehend 
the way in which Cygwin simulates symbolic links by abusing shortcut 
files; cccl and MSVC aren't Cygwin programs...

This problem is very closely related to the discussion we had, only last 
week, concerning the resolution of LN_S for MSYS; cccl probably plays 
better with MSYS, than it does with Cygwin.  If you're using Cygwin, you 
are probably better sticking with Cygwin's own GCC implementation as your 
compiler suite; if you want Autoconf with MSVC, there are Win32 *native* 
tools available, which will support that.

Regards,
Keith.