After 20 years of muddling through builds of diverse software packages under various flavors of Unix, I'm amazed that modern build scripts still don't automatically check for, and offer advice about, conflicting versions of and/or paths to previously installed packages. Especially since scripts like configure seem to check for literally everything else.
I think the inevitable pain, suffering, and frustrated cursing that accompanies the build of almost any moderately complicated package is one important reason why Unix and its variants still haven't caught on with most non-expert users (I'm probably a major exception). The worst part is never knowing whether success will come in 5 minutes or 5 days. Or never. At some point, you make a guess as to the odds that the additional time invested will ultimately pay for itself, and you either push on or else go do something you KNOW will have a successful outcome, like mowing your lawn.
Grant
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