The primary reason we have ./config/configure.py [instead of ./configure] is due to the presence of ./config/bgp-ibm-opt.py etc scripts which use ./config/configure.py So now usage of ./config/configure.py or ./config/bgp-ibm-opt.py is consistant. We can have ./configure as a link to ./config/configure.py [at the cost of making the user interface of ./configure vs ./config/bgp-ibm-opt.py inconsistant] And the reason we want to promote usage of ./config/bgp-ibm-opt.py notation is so that we we don't have users creating shell scripts with configure options in them. Satish

From: Barry Smith <[email protected]>

petsc-dev folks,

is there any technical reason we cannot just change the name of config/configure.py to configure? (does Windows care about the .py and python in cygwin?)

is there any nontechnical reason we cannot/should not make the change?

Barry

My thinking is "the more like what people are use to, the less other people have to learn/deal with, the easier it is for people". Seems like a "little thing" but little things accumulate into big things if you don't eliminate as many little things as possible.