[m-rev.] for review: fix smart recompilation bug

[Fergus Henderson]

On 05-Jul-2001, Simon Taylor <stayl at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> Index: configure.in
...
> +check_c_files () {
...

The autoconf documentation on writing portable shell scripts
recommends avoiding the use of shell functions.

Previously we have followed this recommendation, except for
the test suite scripts, which are not so critical.

However, I spent a bit of time investigating the issue.
The Posix shell standard includes support for shell functions.
They also work OK with all the main free software shells --
bash, ash, and ksh.  Apparently the platform whose
default shell doesn't support them is Ultrix.

Portability to Ultrix is no longer very important.
And for Ultrix, we can always tell people to use bash
to run configure.  So I think this is OK.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
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