[bug-gettext] AM_GNU_GETTEXT_PREREQ

[Daiki Ueno]

Hello,

This is not for the imminent release, but I would like to hear opinions
on it.

In order to integrate gettext into autotools projects, we suggest
invoking AM_GNU_GETTEXT and AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION, like this:

  AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])
  AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.19.4])

This instructs autopoint to extract the gettext infrastructure of the
exact version (= 0.19.4) from the archive, without libintl.

Instead of pulling the infrastructure from the archive, I'm thinking if
it is feasible to offer a mechanism to use the latest version installed
on the system:

  AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])
  AM_GNU_GETTEXT_PREREQ([0.19.4])

This shall copy the necessary files directly from /usr/share/gettext, if
it meets the version requirement (>= 0.19.4).

There are some benefits:

- This could encourage the smooth transition to newer Automake
  conventions, for example $(mkdir_p) -> $(MKDIR_P).

- A maintainer of a package doesn't need to bump the gettext version in
  configure.ac.

and one drawback I can think of:

- This may not be capable of drastic changes in po/, though the feature
  set is stable these days.

I actually don't know the backgrounds of the current macros, so I might
be missing some important points.  Comments appreciated.

Regards,
-- 
Daiki Ueno