FreeTDS Development Group

["Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>]

> From: ZIGLIO Frediano [mailto:Frediano.Ziglio AT vodafoneomnitel.it]
> Sent: October 16, 2002 11:34 AM
> 
> > We didn't write txt2man, so it shouldn't be in our source 
> > repository.  [...]
> > if we're not maintaining it, it doesn't belong in cvs.  
> 
> 1- developer must be able to build a distribution using just gnu tools
>   (this mean "make dist" and also "make distcheck" work)

Fine, but this can't apply to the documentation.  txt2man and openjade
aren't gnu tools, and are required to build the documentation.  

> 2- user should make and install without needing txt2man

from the tarball distributions, yes.  

> To accomplish this (and removing also txt2man from cvs)
> 
> - doc/Makefile.am must build updated man pages automatically. 
> And an error
> should be raised, not ignored (developer must have txt2man or 
> compiled file
> should be there, so make do not build compiled) (point 1)

I think there should be some way for the casual cvs user (someone not
working on documentation and not building tarballs for distribution) to
"make; make install" without getting errors from doc/Makefile.  

I prefer that the Makefile simply check to see if openjade and/or txt2man
are installed.  If they are, build the docs, if not, don't.  I would accept
an explicit configure switch "--without-docs", if you think it's important
to generate an error instead of a warning.  

Perhaps a better idea would be to insist on building the documentation with
"make dist" and also "make distcheck" and generate a warning otherwise.  I
don't know how to do that, but it seems to suit both our requirements.  

> - we must distribute compiled man (point 2)

yes, as we currently do. 

> - we must ditribute source man (so make process do not see error)

No, I think it would be better to have the Makefile be smart.  If there is a
freebcp.1 and there is no freebcp.txt, then there's no need to think about
building the man page.  

> - developer should install txt2man in his machine

Yes, particularly because he might have to install gawk, too (BSDs have
their own awk).  

I think it's very useful (and very unfair to James Clark) to think of
txt2man and openjade in the same way.  They are doc building tools.
Building the documentation with a Makefile is convenient if you're working
on documentation.  Otherwise, it's a needless headache.  There ought to be
some way to skip building the docs if you're not interested in that aspect.


This notion is similar to the odbc build, btw.  I don't have a driver
manager installed, and never build the odbc directory.  It would be a major
annoyance if I had to install something I don't care about, just to build
something I don't care about, just to get db-lib cooking.  

How does that sit with you?  

Regards, 

--jkl


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