On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 11:51 AM, GitHub <noreply_at_github.com> wrote:
> Branch: refs/heads/master
> Home: https://github.com/bagder/curl
> Commit: 7a6d8b1b1a8fcc184c36d6b6e741e32250b4bacb
> https://github.com/bagder/curl/commit/7a6d8b1b1a8fcc184c36d6b6e741e32250b4bacb
> Author: Daniel Stenberg <daniel_at_haxx.se>
> Date: 2013-01-08 (Tue, 08 Jan 2013)
>
> Changed paths:
> M configure.ac
> M docs/INTERNALS
>
> Log Message:
> -----------
> configure: update req to 2.59
>
> I ran the 2.59 version of autoupdate that updates obsoleted configure.ac
> constructs to the 2.59 standard. With a little hands-on fiddling I
> prevented it from ruining the quoting in AS_HELP_STRING() uses.
>
> I subsequently also bumped the required autoconf version to 2.59
> (released in December 2003) as I don't have an older autoconf version
> around to test with and I can't be bothered to install one either...
>
> Inspired by: Björn Stenberg
> Related blog post: http://cazfi.livejournal.com/195108.html

Relative to this commit...

Changing usage of AC_HELP_STRING with AS_HELP_STRING rises autoconf
version requirement to version 2.58 not 2.59.

As of today, no single released version of libtool, autoconf nor
automake _forces_ us to change AC_HELP_STRING with AS_HELP_STRING. On
the other hand using AS_HELP_STRING rises autoconf version requirement
to 2.58, so with this change we are leaving behind in the dust those
using autoconf 2.57 for probably no good reason, including IRIX
autobuilds.

Changing AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL and AC_PROG_LIBTOOL with LT_INIT rises
libtool version requirement from 1.4.2 all the way up to libtool 2.2.
This change will leave back in the dust all libtool 1.5.X and 1.4.2
versions, when not a single released version of libtool, autoconf nor
automake _forces_ us to make this change.

Relative to the blog post mentioned in commit message...

As of today, mentioned blog does not mention any requirement to use
AS_HELP_STRING nor LT_INIT with automake-1.13. Nor any of the three
links it provides.

So, for us and today I see this LT_INIT usage not technically required.

Some facts and personal thoughts on the direction the automake is taking...

automake 1.14 is going to require autoconf 2.70 and most probably
libtool 2.4.2 or later. Additionally intentions of dropping support of
all versions older than autoconf 2.70 has been already stated by
Stefano Lattarini multiple times.

What probably has not been announced so clearly is that usage of
previous autoconf and libtool versions will be nearly impossible and
is intentionally prevented. I feel that announcing backward
incompatibilities is simply not enough.

For libcurl's need, automake 1.13 and 1.14 are just experiments that
bring no technical improvement to this project, probably to none. I
see these versions as steps in the continuous development of
automake-NG ("Next Generation") forced down the throat of
classical-automake in order to attempt that adoption of automake-NG
does not become a big fiasco whenever it is released.

It could happen that that those that become aware of this re-evaluate
the appropriateness of using autotools and current state of other
build systems.

Not even MS had the balls of simply releasing VisualBasic 7.0 with
backward breaking changes to 6.0 in order to push VisualBasic .NET
addoption onto those using VisualBasic.

Probably speaking too clear,

-- 
-=[Yang]=-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
List admin: http://cool.haxx.se/list/listinfo/curl-library
Etiquette:  http://curl.haxx.se/mail/etiquette.html