Re: Files from gnulib

[Simon Josefsson]

Andy Moreton <address@hidden> writes:

> On Wed 26 Jan 2011, Bastien ROUCARIES wrote:
>
>> Therefore since 2001 (creation of doslfn), 8.3 name problem should not
>> exist.
>>
>> Instead of tackling the main problem lack of 8.3 support and use the
>> new api, you are stick in the 90's.
>
> It seems odd to me that the developers of a GNU library fight so
> hard to avoid their code being portable. The gnulib manual [1] says:
>
>   Gnulib is useful to enhance various aspects of a package:
>
>     * Portability: With Gnulib, a package maintainer can program
>       against the POSIX and GNU libc APIs and nevertheless expect good
>       portability to platforms that don't implement POSIX.
>
>     * Maintainability: When a package uses modules from Gnulib instead
>       of code written specifically for that package, the maintainer has
>       less code to maintain.
>
> It seems that manual promotes exactly the features that Eli needs.

This could probably be clarified in the gnulib manual, but my impression
is that gnulib has always been agreesive about abandoning support for
platforms that are not commercially supported and that we can't access
and test patches on.  For example, I believe SunOS 4 falls into this
category.

/Simon