Each brand of Unix and Linux has different runtime libraries with a
different set of functions, in different lib and header directories with
different filenames, and sometimes different compilers with different flags.
autoconf figures this stuff out and automatically writes a header file to
#ifdef macros to help you write code for all possibilities. automake uses
that header file and other info to write makefiles that know where and what
the libs, headers, and flags are. It also works (mostly) on Windows with
Cygwin or mingw, and perhaps it works to some extent on Mac OS X.

I've been through all contortions on this one for years, and that's why I'm
sticking with the pain of getting autotools to work, because I know they can
and other approaches are even more painful.

============================================
Michael Gogins
gogins at pipeline period com
Irreducible Productions
CsoundVST, an extended version of Csound for programming music and sound
Available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/csound/
============================================


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gabriel Maldonado" 
To: "Csound Developers Discussion List" 
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 4:02 AM
Subject: [CSOUND-DEV:4130] Re: autoreconf -i -f


> Are all these autotools stuff backward-compatible? What is the advantage
> to use them instead of having a complete hand-written makefile? Isn't
> the make language multi-platform? (excuse me for the ignorance, but I'm
> only using MSVC and dev-cpp, both generating a makefile automatically
> and in a very easy way).
>
> gab
>
> Anthony Kozar wrote:
> > Sorry, I guess that I had the impression that anyone trying to install
> > Csound from source would have to go through the same steps that were
being
> > discussed on the list.  If running the configure script does not require
> > having autotools, then I guess that we are in good shape.
> >
> > Thanks for the info Steven :)
> >
> > Anthony Kozar
> > anthony.kozar@utoledo.edu
> >
> >
> > On 2/23/04 3:54 PM, steven yi etched in stone:
> >
> >
> >>End user shouldn't need the autotools to compile as they would get a src
> >>tarball that has all the auto-stuff predone, so will only need to do
> >>"./configure; make".  For most end users, they probably shouldn't need
> >>to compile either and just receive binaries (with installers, as Richard
> >>Dobson mentioned).
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> -- 
> Gabriel Maldonado
> http://csounds.com/maldonado
> --
>