It is true that Autotools offer some nice standard options to use when building and installing software. However, for whatever reason, the ability to figure out

It is true that Autotools offer some nice standard options to use when building and installing software. However, for whatever reason, the ability to figure out portability differences seems to be the selling point to many programmers ( http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257 http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257 , https://varnish-cache.org/docs/4.0/phk/autocrap.html https://varnish-cache.org/docs/4.0/phk/autocrap.html ).