File: autoconf.info,  Node: Changed Macro Writing,  Prev: Changed Results,  Up: Autoconf 1

18.5.5 Changed Macro Writing
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When defining your own macros, you should now use ‘AC_DEFUN’ instead of
‘define’.  ‘AC_DEFUN’ automatically calls ‘AC_PROVIDE’ and ensures that
macros called via ‘AC_REQUIRE’ do not interrupt other macros, to prevent
nested ‘checking...’ messages on the screen.  There's no actual harm in
continuing to use the older way, but it's less convenient and
attractive.  *Note Macro Definitions::.

   You probably looked at the macros that came with Autoconf as a guide
for how to do things.  It would be a good idea to take a look at the new
versions of them, as the style is somewhat improved and they take
advantage of some new features.

   If you were doing tricky things with undocumented Autoconf internals
(macros, variables, diversions), check whether you need to change
anything to account for changes that have been made.  Perhaps you can
even use an officially supported technique in version 2 instead of
kludging.  Or perhaps not.

   To speed up your locally written feature tests, add caching to them.
See whether any of your tests are of general enough usefulness to
encapsulate them into macros that you can share.