* NEWS: Mark de-ANSI-fication as being obsolete.

* doc/automake.texi: Likewise.

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 296c6b3..4fb528b 100644 (file)
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2006-08-22  Paul Eggert  <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
+
+       * NEWS: Mark de-ANSI-fication as being obsolete.
+       * doc/automake.texi: Likewise.
+
 2006-08-21  Stepan Kasal  <kasal@ucw.cz>
 
        * Makefile.am, THANKS: Fix typos.

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 66413cf..b9a069b 100644 (file)
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -149,8 +149,11 @@ New in 1.9b:
     $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
     $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
 
-  - Automake installs an "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
-    This example is used thorough the new "Autotools Introduction"
+  - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
+    They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
+
+  - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
+    This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
     chapter of the manual.
 \f
 New in 1.9:

diff --git a/doc/automake.texi b/doc/automake.texi
index b084c9d..28d08c0 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/automake.texi
+++ b/doc/automake.texi
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ Building Programs and Libraries
 * Fortran 9x Support::          Compiling Fortran 9x sources
 * Java Support::                Compiling Java sources
 * Support for Other Languages::  Compiling other languages
-* ANSI::                        Automatic de-ANSI-fication
+* ANSI::                        Automatic de-ANSI-fication (obsolete)
 * Dependencies::                Automatic dependency tracking
 * EXEEXT::                      Support for executable extensions
 
@@ -2043,7 +2043,7 @@ source in case you need more recent versions.
 @table @code
 @item ansi2knr.c
 @itemx ansi2knr.1
-These two files are used by the automatic de-ANSI-fication support
+These two files are used by the obsolete de-ANSI-fication support
 (@pxref{ANSI}).
 
 @item compile
@@ -2369,7 +2369,7 @@ false.o: true.c
         $(COMPILE) -DEXIT_CODE=1 -c true.c && mv true.o false.o
 @end example
 
-Also, these explicit rules do not work if the de-ANSI-fication feature
+Also, these explicit rules do not work if the obsolete de-ANSI-fication feature
 is used (@pxref{ANSI}).  Supporting de-ANSI-fication requires a little
 more work:
 
@@ -2930,7 +2930,8 @@ you can use these variables in any @file{Makefile.am} if
 @code{AC_PATH_XTRA} is called.
 
 @item AM_C_PROTOTYPES
-This is required when using automatic de-ANSI-fication; see @ref{ANSI}.
+This is required when using the obsolete de-ANSI-fication feature; see
+@ref{ANSI}.
 
 @item AM_GNU_GETTEXT
 This macro is required for packages that use GNU gettext
@@ -3698,15 +3699,6 @@ Automake ships with several Autoconf macros that you can use from your
 @subsection Public macros
 
 @table @code
-@item AM_C_PROTOTYPES
-@acindex AM_C_PROTOTYPES
-@vindex ANSI2KNR
-@vindex U
-Check to see if function prototypes are understood by the compiler.  If
-so, define @samp{PROTOTYPES} and set the output variables @code{U} and
-@code{ANSI2KNR} to the empty string.  Otherwise, set @code{U} to
-@samp{_} and @code{ANSI2KNR} to @samp{./ansi2knr}.  Automake uses these
-values to implement automatic de-ANSI-fication.
 
 @item AM_ENABLE_MULTILIB
 @acindex AM_ENABLE_MULTILIB
@@ -3874,6 +3866,16 @@ automatically (@pxref{autoupdate Invocation, , Using
 Autoconf Manual}).
 
 @table @code
+@item AM_C_PROTOTYPES
+@acindex AM_C_PROTOTYPES
+@vindex ANSI2KNR
+@vindex U
+Check to see if function prototypes are understood by the compiler.  If
+so, define @samp{PROTOTYPES} and set the output variables @code{U} and
+@code{ANSI2KNR} to the empty string.  Otherwise, set @code{U} to
+@samp{_} and @code{ANSI2KNR} to @samp{./ansi2knr}.  Automake uses these
+values to implement the obsolete de-ANSI-fication feature.
+
 @item AM_CONFIG_HEADER
 @acindex AM_CONFIG_HEADER
 Automake will generate rules to automatically regenerate the config
@@ -4455,7 +4457,7 @@ to build programs and libraries.
 * Fortran 9x Support::          Compiling Fortran 9x sources
 * Java Support::                Compiling Java sources
 * Support for Other Languages::  Compiling other languages
-* ANSI::                        Automatic de-ANSI-fication
+* ANSI::                        Automatic de-ANSI-fication (obsolete)
 * Dependencies::                Automatic dependency tracking
 * EXEEXT::                      Support for executable extensions
 @end menu
@@ -6510,11 +6512,18 @@ suffix rule handling (@pxref{Suffixes}).
 
 @cindex de-ANSI-fication, defined
 
-Although the GNU standards allow the use of ANSI C, this can have the
-effect of limiting portability of a package to some older compilers
-(notably the SunOS C compiler).
+The features described in this section are obsolete; you should not
+used any of them in new code, and they may be withdrawn in future
+Automake releases.
+
+When the C language was standardized in 1989, there was a long
+transition period where package developers needed to worry about
+porting to older systems that did not support ANSI C by default.
+These older systems are no longer in practical use and are no longer
+supported by their original suppliers, so developers need not worry
+about this problem any more.
 
-Automake allows you to work around this problem on such machines by
+Automake allows you to write packages that are portable to K&R C by
 @dfn{de-ANSI-fying} each source file before the actual compilation takes
 place.
 
@@ -6536,7 +6545,8 @@ code will be formatted in a particular way; see the @command{ansi2knr} man
 page for details.
 
 @acindex AM_C_PROTOTYPES
-Support for de-ANSI-fication requires the source files @file{ansi2knr.c}
+Support for the obsolete de-ANSI-fication feature
+requires the source files @file{ansi2knr.c}
 and @file{ansi2knr.1} to be in the same package as the ANSI C source;
 these files are distributed with Automake.  Also, the package
 @file{configure.ac} must call the macro @code{AM_C_PROTOTYPES}
@@ -8430,7 +8440,7 @@ implies options @option{readme-alpha} and @option{check-news}.
 @itemx @option{@var{path}/ansi2knr}
 @cindex Option, @option{ansi2knr}
 @opindex ansi2knr
-Turn on automatic de-ANSI-fication.  @xref{ANSI}.  If preceded by a
+Turn on the obsolete de-ANSI-fication feature.  @xref{ANSI}.  If preceded by a
 path, the generated @file{Makefile.in} will look in the specified
 directory to find the @file{ansi2knr} program.  The path should be a
 relative path to another directory in the same distribution (Automake

diff --git a/doc/stamp-vti b/doc/stamp-vti
index 7dce5fa..c1b2e87 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/stamp-vti
+++ b/doc/stamp-vti
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-@set UPDATED 20 August 2006
+@set UPDATED 22 August 2006
 @set UPDATED-MONTH August 2006
 @set EDITION 1.9c
 @set VERSION 1.9c

diff --git a/doc/version.texi b/doc/version.texi
index 7dce5fa..c1b2e87 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/version.texi
+++ b/doc/version.texi
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-@set UPDATED 20 August 2006
+@set UPDATED 22 August 2006
 @set UPDATED-MONTH August 2006
 @set EDITION 1.9c
 @set VERSION 1.9c