[tlbuild] asymptote build

[Philipp Stephani]

> All I can say is, we're doing the best we can.  If "phst" can provide
> asy binaries that with the libraries statically linked and opengl
> enabled on any of the dozen or so platforms we ship, then great, please
> send them to me.  I don't argue that that would be a better way.

I managed to build Asymptote with FFTW and GSL statically linked.  ld
accepts files names as an alternative to library names, so we can say we
want libgsl.a instead of libgsl.so.  The attached patch for configure.ac
works for me.

> Otherwise, the choice is not between the full asy that phst wants and
> the present suboptimal asy; it's between the full asy and no asy.  If
> you prefer no asy in TL, after all our work, I won't say no, though it
> would be depressing.  I think saying it is a "fork" is quite overstated.

That's right, sorry for the wording.  Of course 90% of Asymptote are
much better than 0%, but 100% would be perfect ;-)

> I'd certainly prefer to compile it with OpenGL, at least, but it is not
> trivial, since it entails a completely different set of build machines
> than we normally use.  Also, there is a downside to it: the additional
> shared libraries mean the binary will not run *at all* on older systems.

Would it be possible to create two builds, one with and one without OpenGL?

> My understanding from you is that opengl is, while highly desirable,
> only affects preview images for non-Adobe browsers.  That seems like a
> far cry from making asymptote "severely limited".

I think OpenGL is used for rendering.  Asymptote basically has three
output modes for 3D input: PostScript vector graphics, PRC, and OpenGL
rendering.  The latter produces the best results when vector graphics or
interactivity is not needed, so it would be a pity not to allow it.

> Finally, I hope/expect many distros will package (or have already
> packaged) asymptote with the full functionality enabled.  They have the
> luxury of being able to assume the shared library situation.

My hope is the same, but I don't expect too much.  John releases new
versions with considerable improvements every week or so, and most
distributions (like Ubuntu) package ancient versions like 1.43.
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