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Re: the GCC Project is a system vendor for GNU/Linux (Re: GCC vs GLIBC)
On 01-Jul-2001, Mark Mitchell <mark@codesourcery.com> wrote:
>
> --On Sunday, July 01, 2001 03:17:13 PM -0700 Andy Tai
> <lichengtai@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi, the GCC people plus the GLIBC people together are
> > a system vendoe,
>
> We are now wandering into the area of things that the FSF should be
> deciding, not us.
>
> But, I disagree. I think Debian is a system vendor (although system
> integrator would be a better choice of words, my fault.)
Even if the GCC/GLIBC developers don't constitute a system vendor,
I think it is very important for the future of free software
to avoid unnecessary fragmentation and to maximize compatibility
between different free software systems. This requires some leadership.
If we deliberately leave it up to each individual system vendor to decide,
then in the absense of leadership it is very likely that they will come to
different decisions. These decisions may be locally optimal but the net
result is unlikely to be globally optimal.
So I think it would be a very good idea for the GCC and GLIBC developers
to come to some agreement about recommended practices for system vendors
(and, where appropriate, to accept patches to GCC that make it easier
for system vendors to implement such recommended practices).
> We have given people more rope -- enough rope to fix some long-standing
> problems. The problem is that the people may choose to hang themselves
> with the rope.
I don't think that metaphor properly captures the situation.
It's not just about the system vendors choosing to hang themselves;
the problem is that the system vendors may choose different solutions,
each of which individually works fine, but which are incompatible,
and the end result may be that *everyone* in the free software community
suffers.
--
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au> | "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne | of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh> | -- the last words of T. S. Garp.