Get rid of configure/make? (was Re: [Zope-dev] Re: SVN: Zope/trunk/ Merge philikon-zope32-integration branch. Basically, this branch entails:)

[Jim Fulton]

Andreas Jung wrote:
> 
> 
> --On 4. November 2005 11:27:10 -0500 Jim Fulton <jim at zope.com> wrote:
> 
>> Most people who download Zope 2 are not Python programmers. Many of them
>> become Python programmers later.  I think this is a big part of Zope 2's
>> value proposition that we haven't matched in Zope 3 yet.
>>
>> Having said that, I don't really like the configure/make farce myself.
>> I'd be happy to get rid of it.  I'm also happy to defer to the vocal
>> majority.  Maybe it's worth revisiting this, which is why the provocative
>> subject. :)
>>
> 
> Unless you have time enough I would keep it :-)

Time enough for what?  configure/make is just extra maintenance
burden.

 > From my experience using
> configure was never a problem

It was a problem this week. :)

 > - neither for newbies nor advanced Zope
> users. People unable to run "configure; make" are also likely unable to 
> run any other kind of command to perform the same task.

I wasn't arguing that configure/make was hard to use.  I'm arguing
that it's something extra to maintain and is just silly.

It's main benefit is that it leverages a familiar pattern, but
I'm not convinced that it's worth it. Also, as tools like rpm and
deb become more widely used, I'm not sure how familar the configure/make
dance is.  Other than Python and Zope, I never use configure/make anymore.

Jim

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