Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] User Interface
From: Paul Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: Thu Jul 26 2001 - 18:32:23 EEST
>If your connection is limited, use a CD set - GLAME doesnt require
>up to date versions of any lib it depends on.
GLAME might not, but other applications that use part of the GNOME lib
set do. So if I install GNOME from a CD, and then find that another
GNOME app wants a later version, I'm stuck and I invariably need to
download the entire thing. I spent almost an entire night once (mostly
because of rpm's deficiecies, its true) tracking down all the changes
that rippled out from a "simple" upgrade to one of the GNOME libs.
>Imlib is broken. Dont use it.
I don't, but I have apps on my system that do. And when they cease to
work with the imlib I have or the one I just updated to ...
>Well - you get bugreports, you fix your code. Its bad to require
>libxml-1.8.7-3 and nothing else - just fix your code to work with
>any known libxml.
The problem is, I don't use libxml, I use libxml++. The bugs in libxml
propagate into libxml, but in different forms depending on the bug and
the versions of libxml/libxml++. In addition, libxml++'s developer has
done a BAD thing and changed API's without changing major version
numbers. This, needless to say, makes everything even worse.
My options: I could do the Windows thing: every app comes with its own
set of DLL's (though they are versioned, so we stand more chance of
avoiding DLL-hell, but its not guaranteed), which are installed along
with the app.
Or I can work with what's out there, as best as possible. The world of
libraries that we are using is far from perfect, and all kinds of
stupid problems are going to arise from time to time. The GNOME folks
are doing a good job considering the size of their endeavour, but its
precisely that size (and scope) of it that keeps me away from using
any part of it unless i can do so as a standalone library (libxml is
one example of such a thing).
--p
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Thu Jul 26 2001 - 18:30:26 EEST