David> If libffi were like the C/C++ libraries and available
David> consistently on all platforms there would be no need to consider
David> including it in the source.  However, it's becoming clear that on
David> a significant range of platforms using it would require users to
David> install libffi from source and/or to make non-trivial tweaks to
David> their system.  I think it's important to try and ensure that when
David> users download the tar-ball from Sourceforge they should be able
David> to compile and install Poly/ML with the least amount of trouble.
David> It looks like that can best be achieved by including libffi
David> within the source and building with that by default. Packagers
David> and users with special requirements can override that if they
David> need to.  That approach would seem to overcome any objections.

Yes, it is quite common to have an autoconf option like
--with-system-libffi to force linking to an existing shared library.  I
don't think there would be any objection to that.

Thanks for entering into this boring discussion ;-)

-- 
Ian Zimmerman
gpg public key: 1024D/C6FF61AD
fingerprint: 66DC D68F 5C1B 4D71 2EE5  BD03 8A00 786C C6FF 61AD
Rule 420: All persons more than eight miles high to leave the court.
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