Building in a different directory

I sent a message along these lines yesterday, but never saw a copy.
Apologies if this is a repeat.

I normally prefer to build packages in directory other than the source
directory.  When I get a package, I normally do something like this:
    tar -xzvf foo-1.0.tar.gz
    mkdir foo-objdir
    cd foo-objdir
    ../foo-1.0/configure
    make

This is supported by autoconf in conjunction with GNU make.

Is there any interest in changing Postgres to support this?  The main
change is to rename a lot of Makefile files to Makefile.in, add a
couple of lines to each Makefile.in, and add the new Makefile.in files
to the list in AC_OUTPUT in configure.

For that matter, is there any interest in converting Postgres to use
automake?  Using automake, you write Makefile.am files instead of
Makefiles.  Makefile.am files are generally much smaller than
Makefiles, and automake also provides a number of convenient features
such as automatic dependency tracking.  However, it is a shift in
paradigm, and as such requires support from the developer community
(for one thing, any developer who needs to modify a Makefile needs to
install a copy of automake).  I've automakified complex packages in
the past, and I believe it's entirely doable for Postgres.

Is this the right mailing list to discuss this issue?

Ian