build: Use Python to Generate the MSVC Projects

This would move the generation of the ATK Visual C++ 2008/2010 project
to Python 2/3 scripts from autotools scripts.  This would have the
following advantages:

-Reduce congestion in the autotools files, most notably atk/Makefile.am,
 and make everything that concerns the completion of MSVC project files
 fo under build/
-Easier to maintain and test, as a standard installation of Python (even
 on Windows) is enough to generate the Project files, and this can still
 be easily called during 'make dist'.
-Also paves the first steps for people wanting to build ATK from a GIT
 checkout, as this will help simplify the process

There is now a dependency on Python 2/3 for people that are wishing to do
'make dist', as naturally the scripts to do the Visual C++ project
generation is done with Python, but since one is likely going to generate
the .gir files for ATK when doing 'make dist'/'make distcheck', this is
satisfied as the scripts used to generate the .gir files are Python 2.6+
scripts as well.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=690145

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 8478a1b..3b2d309 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -215,6 +215,20 @@ if test "x$enable_rebuilds" = "xyes" && \
 fi
 AC_SUBST(REBUILD)
 
+# option to specify python interpreter to use; this just sets $PYTHON, so that
+# we will fallback to reading $PYTHON if --with-python is not given, and
+# python.m4 will get the expected input.
+# This dependency on Python is for 'make dist', so normal builds would not
+# need Python
+AC_ARG_WITH(python,
+            AS_HELP_STRING([--with-python=PATH],
+                           [Path to Python interpreter; searches $PATH if only a program name is given; if not given, searches for a few standard names such as "python3" or "python2"]),
+            [PYTHON="$withval"], [])
+if test x"$PYTHON" = xyes; then
+  AC_MSG_ERROR([--with-python option requires a path or program argument])
+fi
+AM_PATH_PYTHON(2.5,,PYTHON="/usr/bin/env python2.5")
+
 GNOME_COMPILE_WARNINGS([maximum])
 
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([