getting configuration parameters into package.conf

[Sven Panne]

Ross Paterson wrote:
> The current method for passing extra link options and the like (-D
> flags in the Makefile, as used in the readline, OpenGL, GLUT, OpenAL
> and X11 packages -- search for "yeuch") seems a bit clunky and brittle.
> (And simulating these for Hugs is even worse.)

You're definitely right. Not one of the things to be proud of in our
build system...

> Could these things be placed in config.h instead?

When we want to make the packages more self-contained and independent of
the whole fptools build system (=> library infrastructure), a global
common config.h is bad. Every package should have its own configuration
headers, both probably generated by autoconf (= autoheader + configure):

    * One which is only needed during build time
    * Another one which needed for using the package later

These two aspects are often lumped together. I tried to structure my
(rather incomplete) OpenAL package in a way things probably should
look like. Comments welcome...

Cheers,
    S.