Explain our reasoning for making our own custom build system

Either way, this entry needed updating.

diff --git a/docs/faq.txt b/docs/faq.txt
index 8ad5aacba64c52cc5078688f113719827e022d95..055117f871440303a5351b6f111a04d0a3d30164 100644 (file)
--- a/docs/faq.txt
+++ b/docs/faq.txt
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ OpenSSL  -  Frequently Asked Questions
 * Where is the documentation?
 * How can I contact the OpenSSL developers?
 * Where can I get a compiled version of OpenSSL?
-* Why aren't tools like 'autoconf' and 'libtool' used?
+* Why aren't tools like 'autoconf' and 'libtool' or 'cmake' used?
 * What is an 'engine' version?
 * How do I check the authenticity of the OpenSSL distribution?
 * How does the versioning scheme work?
@@ -138,10 +138,19 @@ on how to obtain and install the free GNU C compiler.
 A number of Linux and *BSD distributions include OpenSSL.
 
 
-* Why aren't tools like 'autoconf' and 'libtool' used?
+* Why aren't tools like 'autoconf' and 'libtool' or 'cmake' used?
+
+A number of these tools are great and wonderful, but are usually
+centered around one or a few platforms.  'autoconf' and 'libtool' are
+Unix centric.  'cmake' is a bit more widely spread, but not enough to
+cover the platforms we support.
+
+For OpenSSL 1.1, we decided to base our build system on perl,
+information files and build file (Makefile) templates, thereby
+covering all the systems we support.  Perl was the base language of
+choice because we already use it in diverse scripts, and it's one of
+the most widely spread scripting languages.
 
-autoconf will probably be used in future OpenSSL versions. If it was
-less Unix-centric, it might have been used much earlier.
 
 * What is an 'engine' version?