Re: libpkg-guide updated (versioned symbols), please proofread

["Marcelo E. Magallon" <mmagallo@debian.org>]

On Sat, Jun 12, 2004 at 01:19:58PM -0500, Steve Langasek wrote:

 > They do prevent you from taking binaries built on Debian and running
 > them elsewhere; but given that failing to use versioned symbols
 > frequently causes binaries built on Debian to not run on *Debian*, I
 > believe this is the lesser of two evils.

 I sympathize with that argument in principle.  If I'm given to choose
 between dealing with a problem globaly and _at least_ fixing it
 locally, in general I'd go for fixing it _at least_ locally.  That is,
 if I can fix it _at least_ in the Debian case, I'd go for it.  But with
 respect to this particular topic, this harms Debian significantly: "oh,
 Debian, you can't use that to develop software, it won't run
 elsewhere".  You know how hard that kind of reputation is to shake.

 Put it another way: yes, in the short run it's better to fix this at
 least for Debian.  But in the long run this creates a much bigger
 problem.

 Marcelo