Clint/others, > > No, application programmers tell ltdl to open the .la file and don't > > have to care about dependant libraries etc. Opening the .dll file would > > not be the same. > There are applications which handle DSO's named .so and .dll without > needing ltdl. Do they handle dependent libraries? If no, how do you integrate them with, e.g. MySQL? If yes, are they portable? If they are resonably portable and handle dependent libraries, don't you think this code should be split out into a shared library so that all programs can use it? That .la files are close to useless on GNU systems does not make them less valuable for portable programs, and unless you want each developer to patch them out in his .diff.gz (because a good upstream wouldn't accept a patch that breaks his program on many platforms), your best option is to leave them in and make sure they don't stand in the way (which is possible). Simon
Attachment:
pgpTAHg3WD7ti.pgp
Description: PGP signature