On 18/04/2013 00:46, Phil Clayton wrote:
On 12/04/2013 12:54, David Matthews wrote:
Based on this, I think there would be a case for setting the default for
Poly/ML to be --disable-shared so that producing the dynamic version
requires an explicit option.
I've now committed this change. The default is now not to build the
shared library but that can be overridden with --enable-shared. Like
any change in SVN it's always provisional so it can be reverted if
necessary. I'd like feedback either for or against.
The main downside that I can see with this approach is that the SO files
are not built or installed. Therefore, with a standard installation, it
would not be possible for a Poly/ML-based application to choose whether
to link dynamically or statically to the Poly/ML libs.
This is really quite difficult and I can see arguments for and against.
It's all about trying to make it easy for users to get up and running
with Poly/ML and to be able to do what they would like to do without
much hassle. The difficulty is in trying to understand how it might be
used in various contexts.
As far as I can see the only real losers as a result of the change to
static library by default would be those who build the system from
source and then want to compile and link several executables produced
with PolyML.export.
I expect that anyone packaging Poly/ML for a distro where the binary and
libraries are installed to, say /usr/bin and /usr/lib, would know enough
to be able to specify --enable-shared. They would probably be
overriding --prefix anyway. That takes care of users who install
through their package manager.
Anyone installing Poly/ML from source and only building "poly" won't
really be any worse off because although the "poly" binary will be
bigger there won't be the extra space for the shared library. It will
also avoid the need for library paths if it is installed to a
non-standard place.
David
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