Re: Patch to INSTALL.CVS to clarify why `make bootstrap' sometimes fails.

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
> Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:33:15 +0200
> Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > What I described above is common for _all_ targets in the Makefile.
> > That's how Make works, so deliberately disrupting that to such an
> > extreme degree as suggested here would unpleasantly surprise users.
> 
> Do you really think that it is common for typical users to habitually
> fix bootstrap errors and continue, to a degree where they get annoyed
> when this process loses them 10 minutes "each time"?

It's common for those who habitually use "make bootstrap".  And 10
minutes can be as much as 30 on slower machines, which isn't fun at
all.

> And they won't, in all their annoyance, read the docs or Makefile
> and discover "bootstrap-continue"?  I find that hard to believe.

IMO, it's a bad mantra to go against user expectations, even if they
are documented.

> Anyway, how about including my repeated suggestion of a
> "bootstrap-clean" target in your browbeating

You don't need me to include it.

> while you are standing up for the status quo?

Not for status quo, for knowing thy tools, and for personal
soul-searching _before_ blaming ``broken tools'' and ``broken build
processes''.