Re: [gettext] Suggestion: improve handling of cond. subdirs

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Tue, Aug 09, 2005 at 01:10:10PM +0200, Bruno Haible wrote:
> However, it is well-known that when there is a declarative and an imperative
> way to specify something, the declarative is more readable and maintainable
> in the long run.

I should have expected that answer from someone who has "lisp" even in his
email address.  ;-)

OTOH, the fact that the same thing is declared twice decreases maintainablity.

I think the following is better than my original proposal:

if LIBASPRINTF
  SUBDIRS_libasprintf = libasprintf
endif
if GLOCALE
  SUBDIRS_glocale = glocale
endif
SUBDIRS = doc intl intl-java intl-csharp lib \
        $(SUBDIR_libasprintf) $(SUBDIR_glocale) \
        src po man m4 tests

I think thart this usage of 'if' can be interpreted as a conditional
expression (the "else SUBDIRS_libasprintf =" is ommitted), so it is
declarative.
I like the fact that DIST_SUBDIRS need not be defined manually.

The rest is about your preferences: would you like it?

> > if test "$enable_libasprintf" != no; then
> >   AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(libasprintf)
> > fi

Oh, of course, you are right: this would break make dist.
Sorry.

Have a nice day,
        Stepan Kasal