request consideration for aclocal.m4 modification

[Ethan Blanton]

Bill Fassler spake unto us the following wisdom:
> I am still lost in the imbroglio of the automake/autconf/libtool
> stuff.  It seems almost intangible at times how it all works.  Libtool
> especially causes more problems in cross-compiling to embedded
> platforms than it is worth (so it would seem to me at times)

Autotools are viewed as black magic by most developers, you are not
alone.  In truth, they're not black magic, but they *are* a giant ball
of spit and baling wire held together with chewing gum, which makes
them just as painful to deal with as black magic.  Less blood, more
sweat.  ;-)  Libtool is a mixed blessing in *all* circumstances, as
best I can tell.

> I never meant to give the impression that I refuse to accept problems
> on my end.
> 
> I feel like I have been working through my problems myself (lately
> anyway), but I assume until I am good at this (which may be awhile
> yet) my analysis, solutions, conclusions and/or patches may be a half
> bubble off plumb.
> 
> I'll let you know if I figure out the root cause of this aclocal.m4
> stuff and if and when I find the reason I can not build finch
> statically.

Simply collecting as much information as you can when asking for help
will go a long way toward helping us get you better answers.  For
example, rather than pasting a make, autoreconf, etc. failure, show us
the error line from that, and then go dig up the chunk of code where
the failure actually occurred, and include that, as well.  If that
code is not something distributed with Pidgin (specifically, checked
into the Pidgin monotone source, if possible), figure out where it
*did* come from, and get us the information about that (such as what
version of what package produced it, etc.).  Providing this sort of
information is legwork on your part, but we're just going to have to
ask for it anyway -- and you'll find that doing that digging will turn
up the answer sometimes, as well.

I think you're on the right track.  If you can give us specific
problems in the build process, we should be able to help track them
down.

Ethan

-- 
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes.
		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764
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