-DEFINES="$DEFINES -DSTRING_UTILS_INLINED"
-AC_DEFINE(STRINGS_UTILS_INLINED)
-
-AC_STEPMAKE_CXX
-AC_STEPMAKE_GXX
-AC_STEPMAKE_CXXTEMPLATE
-AC_STEPMAKE_LEXYACC
-AC_STEPMAKE_LIB
-AC_STEPMAKE_LOCALE
-AC_STEPMAKE_GETTEXT
-AC_STEPMAKE_MSGFMT
-AC_STEPMAKE_TEXMF
-AC_STEPMAKE_TEXMF_DIRS
-AC_STEPMAKE_GUILE
-AC_STEPMAKE_KPATHSEA
-AC_STEPMAKE_BIBTEX2HTML
-
-dnl should check out -print
-dnl huh?
-dnl AC_CHECK_SEARCH_RESULT($FIND, find, Please use --enable-tex-dir)
+# must come before any header checks
+STEPMAKE_COMPILE
+
+STEPMAKE_PYTHON(REQUIRED,2.1)
+STEPMAKE_GCC(REQUIRED, 2.8)
+STEPMAKE_CXX(REQUIRED)
+STEPMAKE_GXX(REQUIRED, 3.0)
+STEPMAKE_CXXTEMPLATE
+STEPMAKE_LIB(REQUIRED)
+# Do not use bison 1.50 and 1.75.
+STEPMAKE_BISON(REQUIRED, 1.25)
+STEPMAKE_FLEX(REQUIRED)
+STEPMAKE_FLEXLEXER(REQUIRED)
+STEPMAKE_LOCALE
+STEPMAKE_GETTEXT
+STEPMAKE_MSGFMT(REQUIRED)
+STEPMAKE_TEXMF
+STEPMAKE_TEXMF_DIRS
+STEPMAKE_GUILE_DEVEL(REQUIRED, 1.6)
+STEPMAKE_KPATHSEA
+STEPMAKE_MAKEINFO(REQUIRED)
+STEPMAKE_PYTHON_DEVEL(REQUIRED)
+
+
+AC_CHECK_HEADERS([assert.h sys/stat.h sstream])
+AC_HEADER_STAT