Using Not AutoMake to develop platform independent build environments

While not all developed software - particularly tools developed for research purposes - is suitable for widespread distribution, it is still a good idea to develop software with a distinct goal of being able to compile and execute it on a variety of different platforms. If we do intend to publically distribute code, then it becomes imperative to ensure that it will compile and execute on various platforms. This is even an issue when considering the same platform as different builds may have different names for their development tools, or may have libraries installed in different directories. Recently, the general approach taken for distribution of platform independent code is the configure/make/make install cycle. In this technical report we discuss different ways to build this type of build environment, in particular looking at the GNU Autotools suite, why Automake is not as useful as Autoconf, and how to use Autoconf without Automake. I will then discuss our Not AutoMake (NAM) tool and how to use it to develop platform independent configure scripts. [Introduction]