I hate code that’s written specifically on and for Linux when it could quite easily target any posix compliant system. What’s with the reliance on libs that rely on other libs that only compile clean on Linux?
Yes, shared libraries are there to make coding applications easier. But when the applications themselves or the libraries they depend upon, are not written to plain old posix least common denominator standards . . . you get a mess that only works on the original platform.
Makes it a bitch to get some stuff working on Solaris (or AIX, the other main surviving true UNIX these days) without installing eighteen-petabytes of gnu tool chain and miscellaneous other stuff, only to have the occasional application or library still fail to compile clean. Even with a heathly bit of whacking the code with vi to slap it into a shape more resembling sanity.
Yes, Solaris and AIX have weird bits themselves, but come on…. write to the posix standard, and I’ll concede to using the gnu compiler suite and glibc, no more than that.
Almost makes me want to go be a goat herder.
Amen to that. There are far too many developers out there that don’t understand that Linux != Unix. Hell, there are no two Unix’s that are alike, they all have their own quirks, but Linux more than any other suffers from a dependency hell for just about every app that has been built for it. It’s insane, and as you suggest, completely unneccesary.
camz
March 17th, 2005
As it turns out, I solved my current portability issue by downgrading the version of mysql that the intermediate library was linking against. Lo and behold, clean compiles on that lib. I’m moving forward with testing the app that uses the lib that uses the mysql lib now.
I’ve also dropped a note to the perpetrators of the cranky lib suggesting that they might want to put in their docs and code comments as to what version of mysql they support.. and possibly programmatic checks for said versions during the build process.
Twits. Wasted a few hours of my time, and a not unnoticed amount of hair pulling over this. Gnash, wail. Bleep.
trever
March 17th, 2005
What you describe was what made me convert to FreeBSD. It seemed more pure in this manner. Seems like a lot of linux developers do not respect all the work put into — and even more — the _importance_ of having and permanently accepting something stable like POSIX. We are already working in sometimes complex surroundings right? So whe are normally working against chaos — eeh — at least if something is supposed to be an open software thing positive for the evolution of things — alright I made my point, or rather — repeated our point: .. Now I have made a blog too, its title is C/POSIX and its on the blog-site og google, blogger.com.
poly
January 15th, 2006