Editing Autoconf (section)

==Criticism==
There is some criticism that states that Autoconf uses dated technologies, has a lot of legacy restrictions, and complicates simple scenarios unnecessarily for the author of ''configure.ac'' scripts. In particular, often cited weak points of Autoconf are:
* General complexity of used architecture, most projects use multiple repetitions.<ref name="kde">{{cite web
|title = Why the KDE project switched to CMake -- and how
|first = Alexander
|last = Neundorf
|date = 2006-06-21
|url = https://lwn.net/Articles/188693/
}}</ref><ref name="lost-bazaar">{{cite journal
|first=Poul-Henning
|last=Kamp
|date=2012-08-15
|journal=ACM Queue
|volume=10
|issue=8
|title=A Generation Lost in the Bazaar
|pages=20–23
|doi=10.1145/2346916.2349257
|s2cid=11656592
|doi-access=free
}}</ref>
* Some people think that 'configure' scripts generated by Autoconf provide only manual-driven command-line interface without any standardization.<ref name="stop-insanity"/> While it is true that some developers do not respect common conventions, such conventions do exist and are widely used.<ref name="gnu-coding">{{cite web
|title = GNU Coding Standards
|url = https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html
}}</ref>
* m4 is unusual and unknown to many developers. Developers will need to learn it to extend Autoconf with non-standard checks.<ref name="stop-insanity">{{cite web
|first = Andrew
|last = McCall
|title = Stop the autoconf insanity! Why we need a new build system
|url = http://freshmeat.net/articles/stop-the-autoconf-insanity-why-we-need-a-new-build-system
|date = 2003-06-21
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707114247/http://freshmeat.net/articles/stop-the-autoconf-insanity-why-we-need-a-new-build-system
|archive-date=2009-07-07
|url-status=dead
}}</ref><ref name="autocrap">{{cite web
 |title        = Did you call them ''autocrap'' tools?
 |first        = Poul-Henning
 |last         = Kamp
 |date         = 2010-04-20
 |url          = https://varnish-cache.org/docs/5.0/phk/autocrap.html
 |access-date  = 2017-08-16
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20170911030645/http://varnish-cache.org/docs/5.0/phk/autocrap.html
 |archive-date = 2017-09-11
 |url-status     = dead
}}</ref>
* Weak backward and forward compatibility requires a wrapper script.<ref name="autoconf 2.13">{{cite web
|first = Thomas 
|last = Dickey 
|title = why i still use autoconf 2.13
|url = http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/autoconf.html
}}</ref>
* Autoconf-generated scripts are usually large and rather complex. Although they produce extensive logging, debugging them can still be difficult.

Due to these limitations, several projects that used GNU Build System switched to different build systems, such as [[CMake]] and [[SCons]].<ref name="kde"/><ref name="blender">{{Cite web |url=http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-233/build-systems/ |title=Blender.org - Build systems |access-date=2009-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202083359/http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-233/build-systems/ |archive-date=2008-12-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref>