[geeks] !!!

[Dave McGuire]

On December 9, David Passmore wrote:
> > > Someone mind explaining to me what is so bad about libtool?  I haven't used it
> > > extensively, but it seems like a handy system.
> > 
> >   It would be handy if it EVER FUCKING WORKED!!
> > 
> >   It's buggy as hell on everything but Linux on a crappy Intel
> > processor.
> > 
> >   I rate it right down there with imake.
> 
> I have to disagree with you there, Dave. It's cryptic and complex to
> implement, but I use it in a package to support loadable modules (shared
> objects loaded during runtime) for a package that has to be very portable,
> and it works like a charm. It even compiles the modules in statically on
> platforms with broken dynamic loading (like Windows) without me having to do
> more than use its macros in place of dlopen() in my code.

  You disagree that it's broken?  You must be using it on a platform
that the libtool authors like.

  Try compiling MySQL under NetBSD and expecting it to run without
complaining about looking for ".libs/..." at runtime.  Or any of the
Gnome components under IRIX, which are what have been giving me
heartburn for the past ten hours.

  I appreciate the work of developers who write wonderful software
like KDE and Gnome.  I want to choke the life out of them, however,
when I find that they think "all the world is a Linux/intel box" and
forget that C is a portable language.  *grumble*

    -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL