On Monday 03 November 2008 13:11:26 Chris wrote:
I use many libraries, I learned bjam because I use boost in Windows and linux. I use ACE, fltk, and compile many. Overall, I do not fully trust any convention of INSTALL.txt and README.txt. Sometimes they have compilation instructions in README (fltk). Or in ACE-INSTALL.html. Or on the website. Or a text file refers to another source. Or under program option help (cmake openalsoft).
If I have a configure, then I don't even read anything. ./configure --help to see options. ./configure, make, sudo make install If not, then I look at any binaries or special files in the directory that tell me what type of build system it uses, or at any text files. I look for "To install, do this: ...". I usually first ignore html files, since I can't vi them. (Sometimes I'm on the console or network.)
I do not understand your point. As a mostly *nix user, here's my take: 1. Most users will use whatever their distribution provides (Linux, OpenSolaris, etc.) and the distribution packagers will figure out that bjam/cmake is what is required. 2. For those that compile from source, the binaries will be installed in some special place, and probably have some complex flags; these users are poorly served by the presence of a configure script that does not exactly match their expectations. In either case, the current configure script does not meet exceptations. Regards, Ravi