Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: Managing changes to projects that use autoco nf/automake with tla

[Andrew Suffield]

On Tue, Apr 06, 2004 at 09:00:27AM -0700, Tom Lord wrote:
> On the other hand, sure, I'm willing to merge in shared library
> support.  I'm not too enthusiastic about the implementation of
> libtool.  What I'd really like to see is a project that spends a few
> weeks and a couple of "spare evenings" volunteers to _extract_ from
> libtool some of the platform-specific knowledge it contains.   I'd
> like to see it produce a document and database:  the document
> describing the variations on shared lib handling in the natural world
> and commenting on what abstractions make sense over those;   the
> database capturing the platform-specific knowledge in a handy format.

I'm afraid this is quite a tricky problem. libtool isn't a thin
wrapper, it's a lowest-common-denominator abstraction layer; some of
the platforms involved, notably AIX and win32, have really *strange*
notions of what constitutes a shared library. Providing an interface
that works reliably, usefully, and in the same manner on all platforms
is one of those "hard problems".

libtool could certainly use reimplementing (in something that is not
shell), but it's no coincidence that this hasn't happened yet.

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
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