gEDA-dev: guile-1.8 requirement

[Stuart Brorson <sdb-at-NOSPAMcloud9_dot_net>]

Guys,

Somebody (I won't mention any names, but I know who you are!) modified
libgeda's configure.ac to require guile-1.8.

The problem is that guile-1.8 has been out there for only a year or
so.  My SuSE 9.3 box doesn't have guile-1.8, and SuSE 9.3 is still a
common platform.

Worse, guile-1.8 has dragged in a bunch of other extraneous,
irrelevant dependences, like GMP, which is GNU's bignum package.  GMP
is also not included on SuSE 9.3.

From the perspective of rolling a gEDA install CD, this is a real PITA.
The CD installer *can* install guile if required, but now guile itself
has dependencies, and the dependencies have nothing to do with gEDA.

Therefore, my request:  I believe guile-1.8 was used since it imports
some nice-to-have function.  If this function is only used sparingly,
can the developer create a Scheme function which implements the
desired functionality, and stick it into our gEDA distro?  Then we can
backrev guile to guile-1.6.x, at least for a year or two.

Alternately, maybe just forego the functionality for the time being?

Or, if you let me know what the desired functionality is, I can try to
hack together a guile replacement myself at the code sprint.  I'd like
to leave the guile requirement back at 1.6 for at least a year or two,
until most systems out there come with guile-1.8 pre-installed.

Thx,

Stuart




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