From: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@netscape.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 95 17:16:13 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: [NOISE] Caution! Netscape 2.0 and Linux
In-Reply-To: <199510082054.QAA04516@clark.net>
Message-ID: <3078691D.50683E45@netscape.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


(I have no idea what this has to do with Cypherpunks, but...)

Christopher J. Shaulis wrote:
> 
> Releaseing an a.out binary without motif staticly linked is a dumb
> idea.

It wasn't a dumb idea, it was a mistake :-)  We didn't intend to do it.

> Thats why the linux developers switched to ELF format binaries. Under
> ELF all symbol names are resolved at run-time so one man's motif will
> work just fine for everyone elf.

Even when ELF has taken over the Linux world, we will still be linking
Motif statically because we can't count on everyone having it, and even
if we could, we can't count on everyone having the same version.

And if Motif is static, then the other X libs have to be static, because
all versions of Motif won't interoperate with all versions of Xlib and
Xt.  (In particular, Motif 1.2.4 and X11R6 don't get along.)

> Normally I would suggest that someone should drop the good people at
> netscape a hint that you can link Motif staticly without linking all
> of the X11 libraries staticly as well, except they are still producing
> a.out bins and since nobody has a.out libraries any more, making one
> dynamicly linked wouldn't do anyone any good.

If you can prove that "nobody has a.out libraries any more," we will
stop distributing a.out binaries and start distributing ELF binaries.
But we don't have the resources to build and test two Linux binaries,
especially given that we don't sell the Linux version.  So, given that
we're only building one binary, my belief is that everyone will be
able to run an a.out binary, and a much smaller number of people
will be able to run an ELF binary.  If you have numbers, I'd be happy 
to be proven wrong.

-- 
Jamie Zawinski    jwz@netscape.com   http://www.netscape.com/people/jwz/
``A signature isn't a return address, it is the ASCII equivalent of a
  black velvet clown painting; it's a rectangle of carets surrounding
  a quote from a literary giant of weeniedom like Heinlein or Dr. Who.''
                                                         -- Chris Maeda