Re: HAVE_STDBOOL_H, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL, and AM_STDBOOL_H

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 02/01/2011 02:29 PM, Simon Josefsson wrote:
> Ralf Corsepius<address@hidden>  writes:
>
> > > Please don't make this last change in Autoconf.  AC_HEADER_STDBOOL in
> > > Autoconf works well right now for people who do not use gnulib,
> > Agreed. I am one of these users.
> >
> > > and I
> > > don't think that it's a good idea to mark obsolescent a working Autoconf
> > > macro to try to "push" people towards using gnulib instead.
> > Agreed, again.
> >
> > For real-world projects, gnulib often is not a viable alternative.
> Could you explain why?  There are several real-world projects that use
> gnulib, so I'm curious what the perceived reasons against it are.  I'm
> genuinely interested in the answer to the question, it is not just
> rethoric because I happen to disagree.
>
> I can understand if you are building non-free software you would not
> want to use gnulib due to license reasons, but you could still use
> autoconf.
Somewhat oversimplified, this applies to us.

RTEMS is an OS for embedded systems and is licensed under a "GPL with 
exceptions for static linkage".
We choose to do so, because to users RTEMS presents itself as a set of 
static libraries, they statically link their application code against.

As we do not want to force our users to release their code, "pure 
GPL'ed" code is not applicable to us.

>    However, I'm not sure this is the problem you are thinking of
> or if there is some technical or other reason.
Yes, there also are technical reasons.

In first place, like most free OSes, we are in the unique position to 
have fairly wide control over the OS, its libc and its toolchains 
(gcc/binutils).
I.e. we can try t fix issues once they pop up and don't necessarily have 
to resort to "portability aids" such as gnulib.

Another technical aspect would be integration of gnulib into existing 
source trees.


And finally, there are personal preferences and likes/dislikes. Some 
people consider gnulib to be great, others don't.

Except that i don't like the auto*tool's tendency to link the auto* and 
gnulib (such as in this thread) my personal position on gnulib is neutral.

Ralf