[tex-k] Autoconf-2.13 vs. 2.59

[Karl Berry]

    using the $extrasub that is part of the sed pipeline in the current

Ah, extrasub!  I'd forgotten all about that.  Maybe I wheedled them into
that.  Like you say, too long ago, and I don't feel like researching my
old mail archives.  Anyway ...

If we aren't using extrasub any more, we should probably tell them so
they can remove it.

    following variables are not substituted until after that part of the
    pipeline:

Drat.

For sure, Hacking into the sed pipeline is not fun in any case.

    or so I've been told by someone who uses the same workaround.

Who is that?

    Personally, I think we'd be best off if there was a version of
    AC_SUBST_FILE that did the substitutions itself, 

Which substitutions?  The ac_include?

More basic question: can we get away from having to do the
configure-time file inclusions completely?  Peter, I know your proposed
mail to autoconf discussed this to some extent, but is it really
impossible?  Seems like a difficult job to get a new feature included in
auto* that no one but us seems to need.

Maybe we should describe the original problem in more detail to them.
They might have a cleaner solution.

karl