UGH! I hate broken configure scripts/pkg-config setups (cairo-compmgr/vala)

Seriously, one of the most annoying things about linux and open source is the constant changing of library names and versions and the inconsistent use of pkg-config or the lack their of!

OK so the configure script for cairo-compmgr does a check for vala which goes fine. It knows where the compiler is and what to do. But later in the script it uses pkg-config to double check the library dependencies and it can't find vala... why? well because the script checks for the library 'vala-1.0' BUT?! the Slackbuild script doesn't install vala-1.0.pc it installs libvala-0.12.pc. Not only is the 'lib' part different but the version reference is also wrong! Most other .pc files use the standard <libname>.pc or <libname>-<major>.pc. I suppose vala may still be too new to adhere to this and now I need to send a note to the Slackbuilds maintainer to consider adding a symbolic link so stupid configure scripts don't make this mistake again.

At least I've fiddled with make/configure and broken scripts enough to diagnose problems like this.