Re: Automake maintenance (was: Re: [PATCH v3] new option: object-shortname)

[Karl Berry]

1. I'm no longer involved with GNU infrastructure work at all.  (Write
address@hidden to reach the people doing that stuff now, primarily
Brandon Invergo.)  But I will comment anyway.

2. Jim (Meyering) is currently the only active maintainer of Automake.
Given that he is also responsible for numerous other packages, I imagine
he would welcome anyone coming forward.

3. As an Automake user, all I can say is that I dearly, ardently,
fervently, hope changes that will be made, by any maintainer, extremely
cautiously. The long-term stability and compatibility of Automake (and
Autoconf and M4) is, in my opinion, a primary reason why it has
succeeded to the extent it has.

4. I have nothing against requiring GNU make, per se, as long as there's
a decent chance of existing .ac/.am files continuing to work. Looking at
NG-NEWS, I think that is true.

Happy hacking,
Karl