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Re: Motif and Lesstif



> > It would probably be best if "lesstif" provided the virtual-package "motif"
> > that other packages can depend upon.  You would then just have to install
> > a dummy "motif" package on your system.
> 
> I'm not clear what problem this solves.  It seems to me that users with
> real Motif need the dummy motif package to tell dpkg not to install
> lesstif or lesstif-dependent packages.  Furthermore, I think packages
> compiled to use lesstif libraries need to be recompiled in order to use
> the Motif libraries.  So the virtual-package approach isn't going to work.

Of course.  That would make sense.  Sorry, wasn't thinking.


> Where does this put developers?  We can build packages which use lesstif,
> but these can't be used by folks with Motif.  Not all developers have
> Motif and those who do may not want to support both motif and lesstif
> versions of their packages (assuming Motif and Lesstif can exist on the
> same system).

Perhaps something in "debian/rules"?  Building a custom package form
the Debian source is trivial.


> Try this:  Packages which depend on the Motif or Lesstif shared libraries
> should also be available as packages with the respective static libraries
> linked in.  Now everyone has some version of a package that can run on
> their system without conflicts.  We should also encourage developers to
> use lesstif over Motif when they can -- the number of users with the shared
> lesstif libraries being greater than the number with Motif, who can still
> use the staticly-linked versions.

Dynamically linked Motif could still cause some problems if the library it
was linked against differs from what is installed.
                                             
                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@verisim.com )
                                             
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 the difference between theory and practice is less in theory than in practice

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