* Andrei Mircea (mircea.andrei@wanadoo.fr) [20000627 01:59]:
Given the huge RAM memory available in present computers, I wonder if it would not be more reasonable to go back to the old system of statically linked programs. Dynamic linking sure is a bright idea, but...what do other people on this list think ?
Thats a very bad idea, for a number of reasons.
- The needed disk space would explode. To see the difference, just compile
your favourite app with -static added to the compiler options.
- Updating the library would force recompiling/updating *all* applications.
- Not every machine has huge amounts of RAM.
There are others but this should suffice.
The reason for the problems with shared libraries is, that most developers
aren't cautious enough. What you need for such work is a defined environment
for building binary packages. That's why our automatic package building
system uses a chroot environment in which all necessary packages for a given
distribution are installed. That way you get a defined set of tools and
libraries that match the distribution for which a package is built.
Philipp
--
Philipp Thomas