From: Bill <address@hidden>
Basically, it is(was) a real problem to keep the generated files up to
date. They are generated, and as a general principal, generated files
don't belong under revision control. It's my opinion that in general the
"tarballs" are intended for end-users, not CVS. Making CVS provided
files easy to use is a great goal, but I know that we fall short of it.
Although I understand that maintaining correct configure/etc. updates in
CVS adds some burden, however note that it's standard practice for all
GNU projects that I'm aware of; and enables the maintainers to utilize
whatever versions of autoxxx scripts and tools they choose, without
unnecessarily burdening others with tool version idiosyncrasies (just as
lex/yacc generate files are typically distributed for the same reasons)
(please don't perceive the comment as a criticism, it's merely an
observation that may actually reduce the longer-term burden on all)
[although not typically necessary, why not simply run and update generated
files after any patch update check-in, and automate it via a script?]