Re: What happened to libgtkhtml19 in unstable?
On Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 11:11:24AM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, J.H.M. Dassen (Ray) wrote:
> The usual advantages of shared libraries:
> - less disk space
> - less memory usage when several application use the same library
>
> If this is no longer important I'll start to link my packages statically
> with libc to avoid breakages with future libc versions...
Libc *does* have a stable interface, or at least it tries to. Libgal
doesn't have that as a design goal. A stable interface is essential
for maintaining shared libraries, and designing one and keeping it
stable is significantly more work than just publishing code. I think
the approach of the libgal maintainers is sensible if they're more
interested in getting the code out than in polishing the interface.
At the same time, I think that linking statically to libgal is sensible
for programs that want to use that code. That way they get to share
at least the source.
People who want the compiled code to be shared can go work on
stabilizing the interface and moving code to more conservative libraries.
That would be useful.
> > That's not a guarantee at all. As a libgal developer explained to me:
> > "GAL is not meant to be api stable. It role is to provide a place
> > to share code and to develop new interfaces. When things
> > stabilize they move down into gnome or gtk.".
>
> Yes, the situation with GAL isn't nice. But please find a solution whose
> first priority are our users and not the most convenient way to pacakge
> gnumeric.
Sheesh, please drop the politicizing. I propose that YOU find such a
solution, and present it to Ray when you have it. In the meantime,
Ray can continue to make our users happy by packaging gnumeric for them.
--
Richard Braakman
Will write free software for money.
See http://www.xs4all.nl/~dark/resume.html
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