[MIT-Scheme-devel] GNU mit-scheme build system

[Claudio Fontana]

Hello,

I am writing you about the GNU mit-scheme project,
as part of my effort to help GNU projects provide a better, more
consistent build system.

Currently, your released tarballs have some serious issues
that prevent successful installation.
Test happened using mit-scheme-7.7.1.tar.gz and mit-scheme-7.7.90.tar.gz
for a stable and testing versions, as available on GNU servers.

The testing system is a GNU/Linux (kernel 2.6.14), gcc-3.3.4, ld 2.15.92.0.2,
aclocal and automake 1.9.4, autoconf 2.59, make 3.80.

The first issue is that while the documentation refers to a bin/ and lib/
directory to copy somewhere in the system to be able to build
the program successfully, no such directories are to be found in the
released tarballs. Thus, the build fails during compilation with:

scheme: command not found

The second issue is that such installation concept is inherently broken,
and incompatible with GNU coding standards.
You can run needed scripts from the source or build directories (or
subdirectories), and install needed data without requiring the user
to move files around before installation.

At the end of the day, users and programs should be able to build and
install the package running:

$ ./configure [--prefix=]
$ make
$ make install [DESTDIR=]

Some links for additional information:

GNU Coding Standards [the only one which is really a necessary read]
http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/

GNU autoconf manual [could help]
http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.57/html_mono/autoconf.html

GNU make manual [could help]
http://www.gnu.org/software/make/

GNU automake manual [could help]
http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/

In each case, please contact me at this address <address@hidden>
to provide your feedback about this issue.
I am ready to offer you information, help and support.

Thank you for your help in making GNU projects build systems better.

Claudio Fontana