Fix: configure: support Autoconf 2.70

Fix: configure: support Autoconf 2.70

The newly-released autoconf 2.70 introduces a number of breaking
changes [1] and is being rolled-out by some distros.

Amongst those changes, the AC_PROG_CC_STDC macro is marked as obsolete
and was merged into AC_PROG_CC, which we already use. On 2.70, this
results in a warning which we handle as an error.

A version check is added to invoke the AC_PROG_CC_STDC macro only when
running a pre-2.70 version of autoconf, fixing the issue.

A single use of the AC_HELP_STRING macro is replaced by AS_HELP_STRING
as the former was marked as obsolete.

The AC_PROG_LEX now takes an argument, and the argument-less version is
marked as obsolete. The macro is invoked with the `noyywrap` option, as
recommended in the documentation.

Also, the AX_PTHREAD macro makes use of the $as_echo built-in shell
variable which no longer exists in 2.70. A patch was submitted to the
GNU Autoconf archive in March, but there have been no signs of life
given since then [2].

As such, our local copy is updated to the latest version and the patch
(which looks fairly straight-forward / safe) is applied. This should
minimize changes once we go back to an "official" version of the macro.

[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/839395/
[2] https://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?9906

Signed-off-by: Jérémie Galarneau <jeremie.galarneau@efficios.com>
Reviewed-by: Michael Jeanson <michael.jeanson@efficios.com>
Change-Id: I80366d810e5daaa7c35923bdd3a49b34dc1ca25e