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Re: Get rid of libtool? [was Re: Makefile problems]
On Mon, Feb 25, 2002 at 12:59:18AM -0300, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> How many of the problems that were blamed on libtool were really bugs
> in libtool? How many times we didn't have problems just because we
> were using this package? Is it really worth to ditch it in favor of
> a more limited solution that will require effort to put in place and
> maintain?
How many people can fix problems with libtool when they occur?
How many people can fix problems with make when they occur?
At present I believe the answer to the first question is "one".
You are the only person I'm aware of that works on gcc that knows
how to figure out what's happening when something goes wrong with
libtool. Note that this is immaterial to whether or not it is
libtool that is at fault -- one must still track down the cause,
which means understanding how libtool works.
On the other hand there are many people on this list that can
figure out what to do with a plain Makefile that has target
specific fragments spliced in at configure time.
Having a single person at that sort of bottleneck is a maintainence
problem itself.
If you were to be hit by a bus tomorrow (providence forfend) we
would either have to spend uncounted hours figuring out how libtool
works, or replace it entirely. And I suspect the later would take
less time.
r~