Re: Slightly misleading ./configure output (was: RE: Segfault when a gnuplot graph is closed?)

[Arnaud Desitter]

Hi,

This is now fixed in the CVS repository and consequently in the
next versions of ddd. Thanks for your report.

Regards,

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Atwood, Robert C" <address@hidden>
To: "'Arnaud Desitter'" <address@hidden>
Cc: <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 6:44 PM
Subject: Slightly misleading ./configure output (was: RE: Segfault when a
gnuplot graph is closed?)


>
>  I hope that this is helpful, it is certainly starting to teach me about
> Configure scripts
>
>
> Here is the message (found in ./configure)
>
>   32873 if $risky_lesstif; then
>   32874 echo
>   32875 echo "configure: This $DDD release requires LessTif 0.87 or
later."
>   32876 echo "Upgrade to a recent LessTif version or continue at own
risk."
>   32877 fi
>
> which appears to come from this part of configure.ac:
>
>     992 dnl
>     993 if $risky_lesstif; then
>     994 echo
>     995 echo "configure: This $DDD release requires LessTif 0.87 or
later."
>     996 echo "Upgrade to a recent LessTif version or continue at own
risk."
>     997 fi
>     998 dnl
>
> However, this message appeared when there was no version of LessTif at all
> installed, OpenMotif installed but the openmotif-devel-*.rpm was not
> installed. In fact, Xm.h was missing entirely. Yes I suppose that is
pretty
> dumb but I bet I am not the last person to do it. This message appeared
> quite prominently at the very end of the configure process, leading me to
> believe that LessTif was the only place that Xm.h could be obtained from.
>
> The message implies firstly that I really ought to install LessTif, and
> secondly that I am able to continue. In fact I was not able to continue at
> all because the files which include Xm.h would fail to complile. Now I
have
> learned that I do not need LessTif specifically, just that the OpenMotif
> headers that were not installed.
>
> It could be improved by first somehow checking if there is any version of
> LessTif at all, and checking whether the file Xm.h is present.
Alternately,
> it could be improved by changing the message to suggest the possibility
that
> Xm.h is not installed at all.
>
>    997 echo "This message is also printed if the motif-compatible library
> Xm.h is missing."
>
> The relevant section for setting the value of $risky_lesstif from
> configure.ac appers to be the section below. Without learning the
configure
> program details, it seems that it applies some sort of Boolean test on the
> file Xm.h, if the test returns 0 (first option) the message is not
> displayed, and if the test returns 1(second option_  the message is
> displayed. It presumably returns 0 iff the lesstif version information in
> the file matches the condition, otherwise it always returns 1, even if the
> file does not exist. Apparently if the OpenMotif version of Xm.h is
> installed, this test is bypassed entirely or returns 0 due to the 'ifdef
> LESSTIF_VERSION' directive. If anohter variable such as $xmh_present could
> be created with the result of testing for this file , an alternate message
> could be printed if both are true.
>
>
> (configure.ac)
>     1 $Id: configure.ac,v 1.10 2003/10/17 16:41:53 apg Exp $
>     .....
>     934 dnl Check for risky LessTif versions.
>     935 dnl
>     936 risky_lesstif=false
>     937 ice_save_CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS"
>     938 CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS $X_CFLAGS"
>     939 AC_TRY_CPP([#include <Xm/Xm.h>
>     940 #ifdef LESSTIF_VERSION
>     941 #if LESSTIF_VERSION == 0 && LESSTIF_REVISION <= 86
>     942 #error LessTif 0.86 or earlier
>     943 #endif
>     944 #endif], risky_lesstif=false, risky_lesstif=true)
>     945 CPPFLAGS="$ice_save_CPPFLAGS"
>     946 dnl
>
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Arnaud Desitter [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: 25 November 2003 16:50
> To: Atwood, Robert C
> Subject: Re: Segfault when a gnuplot graph is closed?
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Atwood, Robert C" <address@hidden>
> To: "'Arnaud Desitter'" <address@hidden>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 4:23 PM
> Subject: RE: Segfault when a gnuplot graph is closed?
>
>
> >
> > Okay, I'll try that. At first I did not realize that I could do this,
> > I
> kept
> > getting messages from configure that lesstif was required, because I
> > had
> not
> > installed the openmotif-devel RPM.  A small suggestion: if the Xm.h
> > file
> is
> > not found at all, the message would be better if it did not
> > specifically request the user to install lesstif. I am sorry I have
> > never used
> 'configure
> > ' myself or I would try to fix it myself..
>
> Which message ? Difficult to improve anything without knowing that.
Relevant
> files in CVS repository may be configure.ac and acinclude.m4.
>
> As well, "configure --help" is informative IMO.
>
> Regards,
>