Colin Guthrie wrote:
> Steve Morris wrote:
>> Anssi Hannula wrote:
>>>> Having
>>>> libXXX.so.1 and libXXX.so.2 coexisting is great, and libXXX.so should
>>>> always be pointing at the latest version, and software that is not
>>>> version specific should have a runtime dependency on the libXXX.so
>>>> file.
>>>>  
>>>
>>> But the software cannot know whether the dependency is
>>> version-specific.
>>>  
>> Correct, but the author does. It is the author who is making the
>> decision about whether the dependency needs to be version specific or
>> not based on how the software was written.
>
>>> The release of libXXX.so.3 could completely change the interface and
>>> the
>>> application would no longer work.
>>>  
>> This applies to everything, and while true, this is why you have
>> software maintainers, change documentation, testing strategies and
>> release cycles.
>
> I'd argue this is why you have versioned requirements so that things
> don't just break underneath you when everything appears to glue
> together correctly at a high level.
>
> The best analogy I can think of is putting diesel in a petrol car. The
> tank says "Insert fuel here" and I have a pump that spits out diesel
> so I slap some in and try to drive away. It doesn't work. I am
> surprised as I've followed the instructions and inserted fuel so WTF
> is up? I'd have to read the manual of the car just to work out that
> I've used the wrong type of fuel. Jeeze what a fool I am!
>
> Over here, our petrol pump nozzels are much smaller than diesel ones,
> so it's damn near impossible to accidentally put diesel into a petrol
> car. I know *by design* that the petrol pump I'm using is correct and
> that the diesel pump is wrong (obviously this doesn't work both ways!)
>
>
> I really can't express how wrong I think you are in any more ways!!!
>
> Col
>
The thing that completely frustrates me about this concept, apart from
an end user viewpoint of lack of standards, is that I cannot go to the
mozilla site or sun site and download their products because of not
installing in 2008.1/cooker because of this version dependency, and this
version dependency is on libstdc++.so.5 (might have the actual library
name wrong here but the version is right) whereas the current version in
Mandriva is .so.6. I am trying to install self contained versions
because of the laptop not being network connected normally (main use is
on a train undertaking online training courses) and at work I am sitting
behind a firewall that is known to not be compatible with Linux. I could
connect the laptop into the home network and install the rpms, assuming
the mirrors have the software I want to use, but why should I have to.
The software I am trying to use may be dependent on the specific version
or it may not, but based on your conventions who knows. The bottom line
is that on an out of the box install of Mandriva 2008.1 I am not
necessarily able to run the software I want to or need to because of the
distributions conventions.

regards,
Steve