[Portland] Re: Project Portland, RuDI and the Generic desktop adapter

[Dan Kegel]

On 12/8/05, nf2 <nf2 at scheinwelt.at> wrote:
> As a Java developer i'm using Eclipse quite a lot and ldd reports that
> it dynamically links 32 libraries, including gtk+, glib etc. And it's a
> quite old Eclipse from March 2004. So where is the problem? This ABI
> debate is still a bit mystic to me...

I see ABI problems every day.  For instance, Wine built on one
linux system often won't run on a different linux system.
By definition, this is an example of an ABI problem.
Not sure exactly which one, but whatever it is sure bites :-)

That said, I think there's room and need for both approaches.

#1, we need to make it easier for ISVs to develop
applications that directly link to binary libraries by
encouraging ABI stability and standardization (e.g. via the LSB).
And #2, we need to make it easier for ISVs to develop
applications that are less dependent on ABIs.
ISVs can then pick and choose which approach works best
for their app.

- Dan

--
Why won't Johnny run Linux?  See http://kegel.com/linux/comfort