Deploy Gnu Autotools for native parts

[bengtmartensson]

For good or bad, using the Gnu Autotools is sort-of standard for, e.g. locating include files (jni.h etc here), It is also on the TODO, however not unconditionally.

I have a Autotools "fork", but I would like some feedback before I start working on a pull request.

[aclemons]

I am not against switching to autotools. We'd need to put back in the conditionals as it is now. Some distributions only build editline support and not readline support.

I also had a play with using meson and it is working quite well with conditionals. meson branch

That is another option, albeit a rather new one. Several gnome projects however have switched to it recently.

[bengtmartensson]

I am all but an advocate of the Autotools. I think that the design objectives (from the early 90-ties) are not necessarily very relevant now.

The main issue that has to be addressed is the location of the JNI includes, and possible the javah program. I have not looked at the meson stuff yet.