Re: [MiNT] Re[2]: GEM boost

[Mark Duckworth <mduckworth@atari-source.com>]

On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 09:49 -0500, Evan Langlois wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 16:12 +0200, Petr Stehlik wrote:
> > Consider switching to a different Linux distro (Debian fan here :) I
> > never compile anything...
> 
> Compiling I don't mind as much as the constant state of flux.  Everyone
> wants me to change to their favorite distro, but I'm the one that
> started getting into MiNT again by first building a new cross-compiler
> and binutils, and then use it to compile the latest mintlibs, etc, etc.
> I don't mind the compile - I prefer it as long as its something I
> actually use.  Its the constant state of flux thats annoying.
> 
> Now to get back on topic.  If MiNT goes to the same sort of library
> system that Linux has, the same sort of problems will occur.  You
> upgrade 1 lib and 3 other libs break, so upgrade those and 10
> applications break, etc.

I don't feel that Linux's lib problem is anywhere near as bad as MiNT's.
First of all, we would be able to steal gentoo's revdep-rebuild tools
pretty easily, and secondly the lib api generally only changes on major
revisions of libs.  In 2 years of running gentoo, I've really only had
to run revdep-rebuild once.  Under MiNT, as package maintainers, we can
simply try to figure out everything that is broken by the upgrade and
recompile it and release a -2 rpm... the users won't know.

Thanks,
Mark