"Monolithic" vs. "modular" build / was: Re: [Xorg] DocBook SGML/XML

[Egbert Eich]

Roland Mainz writes:
 > Keith Packard wrote:
 > > > Erm... when was the decision made to introduce "autotool" stuff into the
 > > > X.org tree (which implies SERIOUS legal questions when the Xorg tree
 > > > starts to depend on non-X.org/MIT-licensed stuff) ?
 > > 
 > > I guess I don't understand the problem here -- the tree won't contain any
 > > non-MIT licensed material, and when ready for distribution won't require
 > > any GPL licensed utilities to build.  Yes, if you want to build from CVS,
 > > you'll have to get automake, autoconf and libtool installed, or build
 > > compatible systems.
 > 
 > What if someone wants to build an OS which is completely free of GPL
 > stuff ? Right now it's possible (and mandatory for some commercial
 > vendors) ... but after the modularisation it will be unavoidable to use
 > GPL-licensed tools to build the tree. That's not a problem for
 > OpenSource OSes like Linux... but what about the commercial vendors ?

You should still be able to build the stuff as none of the stuff you
need to do the build should be under the GPL (at least not under the
GPL soleley). Only when you do development and need to extend the build
environment you will need GPLed tools.
However I'm not aware of any case where this is really an issue.

......

 > options were used. And the people who are qualified to build Mozilla
 > dropped significantly... it's now something like "black magic" to get a
 > working Mozilla binary without shooting yourself into the feet with the
 > wrong "configure" options. All these "issues" thanks to the "superiour"
 > autotools stuff... fun... ;-(((((

I have deleted some of your comments to reduce the size of this email.
I have raised several of these points and was promised they can all
be dealt with. Now it is upon those who push for autotooling to proove
it.

 > 
 > > Egbert has asked that I not push to remove the imake-based build system
 > > any time soon, so if you really want to, you can continue building the

For the reasons you have mentioned. I don't want this to be
a one way road and I want to keep Imake around as long as people
have agreed that the new build system provides a workable solution
for them. 
It took long nightly sessions at the bar to get that far ;-)

Cheers,
	Egbert.