I should correct that: automake builds things by creating makefiles. The configure script created by autoconf is concerned with configuration rather than building, but its output is input to automake.

CMake, Scons, etc. are mainly targeted at dependency-based building of programs. Autotools doesn't really build anything. It goes through a long list of system facilities, determining if each is present. For many, perhaps most of them, it builds a little C program that exercises the facility, and sees if it compiles.

Now, there's another poster who says you really can do this with CMake, which I'll have to look at.

This isn't really a problem for StackOverflow. It's a problem for the developers of GCC and its libraries, and a policy problem for the overall GNU project in that Autotools is IMO too much of a mess to live, and is a barrier to participation as it stands. That's why I talk about it here instead of just submitting it as a bug report.

I would like to see someone come up with an alternative. That alternative is not CMake or Scons, etc., because those are build systems rather than systems that probe a platform for fine differences in the programming environment and produce a set of macro switches as output.

Yes, I can get a pre-built toolchain or a building kit, but it doesn't really solve the problem of not being able to build the current GCC with the right settings in its configure script and to use it with the right C library and kernel headers for my device. Should I modify any of those toolchain kits to do that, they'll come up with the same errors.

Besides devKitARM, there is the collection of toolchains mentioned here. I am getting most of my clues from the Emcraft toolchain, which is the only one for the SmartFusion. And we're great friends with Emcraft, but I want something a bit newer and a different build-tree style.

My last approach to the libstdc++ mailing list, here, was left unanswered. I figured out the problem behind that one, but it would have been nice to get some advice.

Autoconf doesn't have a --synclines flag, but I might be able to pass it in the M4 environment variable. I'll give it a try.

I've been configuring a toolchain for Algoram's programmable radio transceiver, which has a SmartFusion 2 containing a Cortex M3. Until today, I've been working with GCC 5.1. Building GCC for cross-compilation on a no-MMU, no-FP processor and a software platform that doesn't support shared libraries isn't trivial, though it should be. GCC has many configure scripts, one for each library that it builds and at least one for the compiler. You run across many configure issues which are difficult to debug. For example, the configure file, a macro-expanded shell script, doesn't have source code line numbers from its configure.ac file. Error messages do not in general indicate the actual problem, and are difficult to trace. Figuring out what to fix is far from trivial. I ended up not being able to use multilibs (which would have allowed me to build for FP processors like Cortex M4F as well), couldn't link in ISL, couldn't build libjava.

Some of these are beginner problems - I'm new to building cross-toolchains and have avoided autotools as much as possible before this project. But not all of them.

One would think that we could build a better system today than such voluminous M4 and shell. Perhaps basing it on a test framework might be the right approach.

First of all, this is really old news. SpaceShip One no longer flies and has been a museum piece for years, and Virgin's burned their bridges with Scaled Composites and thus made it a lot less likely that they will be able to mount a near space effort with the SpaceShip Two design.

Second, this is not an orbital re-entry system, because it's not well-suited for a heat shield and thus can't do the necessary atmospheric braking. It's just a system to get you back from high altitude suborbital flights.

You make a good emotional appeal, but the reality is that someone just casually sharing a song isn't likely to be subject to these penalties at all.

That's sort of like saying the penalty against burglary would only be used against someone who steals the Crown Jewels.

If the law specifies a minimum offense at all, you can be sure that anyone reaching that minimum is at risk. We've had very many documented civil copyright trolls going after otherwise un-notable individuals, and thus abuse of criminal law is certain.

It would have to be many farads, this isn't a car stereo. The problem is how to gate the power after such a large capacitor. You're right that it could increase the momentary current. But that's also the problem. Their "contactor", a mechanical switch, has had to be upgraded with exotic alloy to deal with heating. And if you try to gate the power before it, you end up feeding what is very close to a short circuit while it charges.

Tesla Motors mode selector, circa 2025:
-Eco
-Sport
-Race
-Ludicrous Speed
-Maximum Plaid
-11
-88 (MPH)
-ERR_INT_OVRFLW
-???
-Profit

IRS 501(c)(3) organizations are restricted from political action group activities. If they want the benefit of being a charity, they have to act like one.

(Not that it really matters because the IRS lost the Ring of Power to Audit Church-like organizations back in 2009 or so.)

While I started in Redmond, I no longer live there. The tech job market where I live now is incomparably less developed than Seattle.

All of the numbers in this article are very believable.

I have a BS degree from the University of Nebraska. And not the prestigious Raikes school, but the normal old pre-Raikes degree program.

After a summer internship, I got an offer from McDonnel Douglas for 48k.

My offer from Microsoft was more like the 60k figure. I took that one, because it didn't involve living in St. Louis.

The year: 2000

So, 60k to start right out of college was a going rate for top-tier companies... fifteen years ago.

Some companies paid much more, and sometimes that was a company decision, and sometimes it was a reality of where the position was located. For instance, before I had even finished my degree, I was recruited for a position with a 99k starting salary. That firm, however, was in NYC. When you adjust for NYC cost of living, it's not such an eye-popping number.

Subsequent to these numbers from 15 years ago, I have been involved in lots of hiring at Microsoft in the years I've been here.

Starting salaries have adjusted upward significantly since I was hired.

If you can score an engineering position with a top software/services company like Microsoft, you will be paid exceptionally well. For someone fresh out of college, there is just an obscene amount of money on the table.

Different companies target different spots in the industry pay curve. Microsoft by no means targets the top of the salary scale, but neither do we target the bottom. At times, Microsoft has been seen as, to put it mildly, "pretty uncool". At times, there has been lots of startup money and equity available for top quality grads to go after.

In those time periods, Microsoft has to offer more money to continue to attract new talent.

If you want to work at a company where lots of people want to work (e.g. a games company, or SpaceX), those organizations don't have to compete as much with offer packages, since their brands have a high intrinsic draw.

While I don't know what a Netflix offer package is like, Netflix states that their policy is to pay very high wages - the wage they'd be willing to pay to keep someone excellent who wanted to leave.

Finally, it's important to consider the type of organization you're looking at joining. Do they do software/IT, or is that a cost of doing business for them? If a company is in the business of selling shoes, but has an unavoidable need for software engineers, they're going to treat software engineers as a cost of doing business.

If a company is in the business of building software, they're going to think differently about compensation and retention.

Finally, companies that aren't well established players in the software space can have difficulty making big offer packages. At times in my career, I've been frustrated and have looked elsewhere, and the smaller, less profitable companies I've spoken with are offering tens of thousands lower than what I was already making.... making the friction of leaving financially tremendous.

(my personal financial plan is to expect a 50% paycut when something happens to my MSFT employment)

In summary, I have no problem believing the numbers. Top quality CS people at top quality organizations are paid outrageously well.

However, I get that lots of people are expressing disbelief. Let's talk about why that may be. The survey data could be skewed by multiple factors:
- the locale of the person responding
- the self-selection bias of the person responding (e.g. are people happy with their comp more likely to fill out a survey?)
- the kind of organization the survey respondants work for...

If you surveyed internal apps developers at regional insurance offices, in the Midwest, you would get a different picture from a survey of facebook engineers...

On Android? No. Data usage is a baked in feature since forever ago, including an app by app breakdown, warning levels and mobile data cutoff limit. Just use that - it should be buried in settings somewhere.

As far as data limiting tools, the only thing like that I've ever used is DroidWall, which is just a simple GUI for IPTables. It does require root (!) but once installed you can hand out network privileges (Roam, Data, WiFi, all independently) on an app by app basis. This lets you keep data crazy apps from ever touching a cell tower (WiFi only), or apps that have no good reason to be calling the outside world from doing so. Just be warned that a blacklist by default policy means installing a new app isn't just as simple as pushing install - you also have to remember to set it's network rights, or most mobile apps won't work as designed. All that said, I'll admit that DroidWall isn't a perfect solution for what you're looking for (requires root, no way of throttling an app, just yes/no access) but it might still be useful.

Have you ever been to Redmond?

The whole town exists because of Microsoft money.

Software Engineering is the economic driver of all of King County WA.

The Pac NW needs Microsoft. Not the other way around.