Autotools: Somebody Does Understand!
Posted 12-19-2009 at 09:25 PM by CoderMan
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/...tomake_libtool
So, I just recently switched my FOSS project from a single Makefile to autotools. Sadly, my guide for this journey was the official autotools documentation, and it was a less the pleasant experience. In fact, I got so discouraged I actually posted a poll to determine whether it would be less painful to learn autotools or to shoot myself in the foot.
I just came across the above link, however, and it was nice to find somebody out there who seems to understand the problem: most of the "uninitiated" like myself are attempting to make use of autotools without really having any idea fundamentally what it is that autotools is doing. The official documentation, he points out, reads more like a reference book than a tutorial for beginner.
Anyway, I'm about to go through his online book and see if it will be able to clear up a number of issues for me. I actually do think autotools and configure scripts are pretty cool, and I really want to make good use of it in order to make installation and configuration easier for the end user.
So, I just recently switched my FOSS project from a single Makefile to autotools. Sadly, my guide for this journey was the official autotools documentation, and it was a less the pleasant experience. In fact, I got so discouraged I actually posted a poll to determine whether it would be less painful to learn autotools or to shoot myself in the foot.
I just came across the above link, however, and it was nice to find somebody out there who seems to understand the problem: most of the "uninitiated" like myself are attempting to make use of autotools without really having any idea fundamentally what it is that autotools is doing. The official documentation, he points out, reads more like a reference book than a tutorial for beginner.
Anyway, I'm about to go through his online book and see if it will be able to clear up a number of issues for me. I actually do think autotools and configure scripts are pretty cool, and I really want to make good use of it in order to make installation and configuration easier for the end user.
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