Re: External modules

Jerry> It appears that the consensus from the discussion following Jerry> my earlier modules question was that: Jerry> a) I should do my own autoconf magic (which, as somebody Jerry> mentioned, wasn't all that hard); and Jerry> b) I should structure my module so that it can be Jerry> compiled outside of the XEmacs source tree (i.e., make it Jerry> an external module). Jerry> For the information of whoever is responsible for modules Jerry> (I don't see anyone listed on Jerry> <URL:http://xemacs.sourceforge.net/Develop/jobs.html>), Jerry> here are the obstacles I have encountered so far in Jerry> accomplishing (b), working with the XEmacs 21.2.37 Jerry> distribution: Jerry> 1) Missing header files. Jerry> a) emodules.h is not installed anywhere when XEmacs is Jerry> installed, so I can't very well include it. Jerry> b) A bunch of other header files, needed by Jerry> emodules.h, are also not installed. These include Jerry> lisp.h, sysdep.h, window.h, buffer.h, etc. Jerry> Incidentally, speaking of installed header files, why Jerry> are the entire s&m directories installed in Jerry> .../lib/xemacs-21.2-b37/config-name/include? It's a Jerry> machine-specific directory, so why do I want header Jerry> files for every machine under the sun? Jerry> 2) Lack of examples. Jerry> a) The examples in the modules directory of the XEmacs Jerry> distribution are all of internal modules. That is, Jerry> they only build inside the XEmacs source tree. And Jerry> even then, they aren't right. They only build inside Jerry> the source tree *if you built XEmacs itself inside the Jerry> source tree*. If you, like me, build XEmacs for Jerry> multiple platforms, and therefore use VPATH to build Jerry> outside of the source tree, the modules won't build at Jerry> all, due to assumptions about the location of ellcc Jerry> and make-docfile. Jerry> b) The example Makefiles (and, strangely, not the Jerry> README in the modules directory) all refer to "samples Jerry> in the sub-directory 'installed'" to show how to write Jerry> modules to be compiled outside of the XEmacs source Jerry> tree. That subdirectory is not part of the XEmacs Jerry> 21.2.37 distribution, the comments are in the wrong Jerry> place, and I doubt that such examples even exist due Jerry> to problem #1. Jerry> I am willing to be a guinea pig to help get external Jerry> modules working, but I need some direction from the list Jerry> and whoever is coordinating module development. Would that be you, Gunnar? Jerry> Regards, Jerry> -- Jerry> Jerry James -- Adrian Aichner mailto:adrian＠xemacs.org http://www.xemacs.org