3 ms·
Autotools, during its lifetime, has provide tremendous value across innumerable scenarios and systems. What does it matter if it didn't stand the "test of time
by rectang 6y ago
Autotools, during its lifetime, has provide tremendous value across innumerable scenarios and systems. What does it matter if it didn't stand the "test of time" — especially if it shone a light for its successors to follow?
The Autotools model of probing for system capabilities at build time isn't dead; it will never die, it will only be used in greater and lesser amounts and to complement other means of discovering system capabilities.
CMake seems to me like a reimplementation of the Autotoools model of build-time probing. The true competitors are binary distribution after building on precursor systems with full specification and no probing, and cross-compilation with full specification and no probing.
- jfb 6y agoSaying that something is obsolete isn't a value judgement -- it's an observation of the differences between the state of the world when it was necessary and now. This describes autotools to a 't'. It's not that there are that many fewer build targets these days, but rather that there are many many many fewer installations of most of those build targets these days.