Re: libiberty: hashtab allocation functions with an extra argument

[DJ Delorie <dj at redhat dot com>]

> What kind of problems would changing the size of the hashtab struct
> cause?

This is the least problematic change, and generally only affects
poorly written programs.  If a module uses sizeof(struct htab) to do
something, changing the size of the htab may cause problems unless
you're really careful to recompile everything.  When shared
libiberties are involved, it's not always possible to recompile
everything.

And before you say "well, then screw them" I add that it's our
responsibility to think of all the possible problems and how we will
deal with them before blindly changing a public interface.  If you can
successfully convince us that your change can not cause problems with
other packages, then that reason for opposing your change becomes
moot.

The next most problematic change would involve changing or removing an
existing field, followed by adding a required access function where
direct access was allowed before.