Calling autoconf in a spec.

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 07/04/2011 03:48 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Ralf Corsepius writes:
>
>> > I've got C++ code that's more than ten years old. Still builds just
>> > fine, without any diagnostics.
>> Then you're lucky - May-be your C++ code is recent enough?
>
> No. I have the source tree right here. Large chunks of it are quite old.

My favorite friend in Fedora: Inventor (Old SGI-code).

Most extreme example, I've seen so far: The NiHCL containers (Old 
cfront-code, Very popular in the early days of C++, but far away from 
any C++-standard or draft of a standard).

>> So far, most pre-ISO-C++ code I have encountered, esp. when originating
>> from non-gnu platforms has required major surgery ;)
>>
>> Worse, "advanced c++ code" often even requires surgery between g++
>> releases (Much of my own works is based on C++) ;)
>
> It's been my experience that each successive g++ release is more strict
> and paranoid on compliance. It'll will complain about stuff that was not
> kosher to start with, but previous g++ releases let it fly.

Yes, that's the official way of "reading" - In practice, you don't 
actually know "something isn't kosher" in the latest incarnation of the 
"Standard" or in "G++", until g++ refuses to build ;)

It's the same class of issues as with the autotools:
  People are "unkosher things" which "work for a long time", and then - 
out of a sudden - don't work anymore and/or require surgery.

Ralf