Autoconf and Automake support for ObjC++

[Peter Breitenlohner]

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:

> * Peter Breitenlohner wrote on Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 03:35:48PM CEST:
> > On Mon, 20 Jul 2009, Peter Breitenlohner wrote:
> >
> > > are there any plans that Automake supports ObjC++ (as implemented in
> > > gcc-4.x)?
>
> AFAIK nobody else is working on patches yet; they would be very welcome.
> I suppose adding ObjC++ support should be very straightforward.  Thanks.
>
> > I forgot to mention: of course, this would require that Autoconf supports
> > ObjC++.  Are you aware of any plans into that direction?
>
> Nope.  Since 2.64 might not be far away, you might want to do this
> first.  (Otherwise, there is also the possibility for an
> AM_PROG_OBJCXX.)

Hi Eric,

can you tell me the approximate schedule for Autoconf 2.64. I'd like to
create patches adding support for ObjC++, preferably in time for 2.64.

=====================

Another item:

During the last several months I was involved in a complete rewrite of
the TeXlive (formerly teTeX) build system using Automake and modernized
Autoconf.

In doing so I "had" to use the names of various cache variables, in order to
write, e.g.
        AC_CHECK_HEADERS([inttypes.h sys/types.h <more_headers>])
        if test "x$ac_cv_header_inttypes_h:$ac_cv_header_sys_types_h" \
                = xno:no; then
          ...
        fi
instead of the more clumsy and less efficient
        AC_CHECK_HEADERS([inttypes.h], [have_inttypes_h=yes],
                                       [have_inttypes_h=no])
        AC_CHECK_HEADERS([sys/types.h], [have_sys_types_h=yes],
                                        [have_sys_types_h=no])
        AC_CHECK_HEADERS([<more_headers>])
        if test "x$have_inttypes_h:$have_sys_types_h" = xno:no; then
          ...
        fi

One set of cache variables, where this is particularly important is
ac_cv_search_* if I want to use, e.g.,
        AC_SEARCH_LIBS([connect], [socket nsl])
but want to have the required library (if any) in a separate variable such
as SOCKET_LIBS and not added to LIBS.

It would be nice if these ac_cv_* names could be made part of the API, i.e.,
be frozen and documented.

=====================

Regards
Peter Breitenlohner <address@hidden>