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SubjectRe: [OFFTOPIC]: MS Porting Office to Linux?
On Sat, 13 Mar 1999, Mike A. Harris wrote:

> And what is the difference between static linking, and dynamic
> linking that requires a specially distributed shared library that
> must be used?
>
> I fail to see the difference. If the shared library isn't the
> one that everything else on the system uses, then IT ISN'T
> SHARED. In other words, if commercial program A required library
> B to be used, and only program A is using it, then nothing is
> sharing the library, and the application might as well statically
> link in the first place as it will consume the same resources,
> and perhaps be a bit slower due to dynamic linking.
>

Vendor X has no idea what shared libraries exist in/on your system.
To make certain that Vendor X's executable works, he provides some.

Linux-ers got used to untarring a source-tree and building it.
In this case, the libraries used will be the ones that exist on
the system that built it. Now we have commercial software being
ported to linux (just like Sun). To make sure it works, these
vendors will provide libraries.

Now, if you have 2 or more users running Star Office, you are
certainly sharing shared libraries so your complaint is not well
though out. Further, memory mapping a shared file, but not reading it
yet, is less costly to performance than loading a large-size
statically-linked file.

I agree that Linux's new-found fame will cause integration problems
when commercial software vendors provide their wares.

It is unfortunate that the first trial ballons will take a lot of heat.
Eventually vendors' installation programs will check to see what libraries
your system has and use yours if they are compatible. They will eventually
understand the power of a symbolic link. In the subject case, Star Office
should have linked against LibStar-C (or other unique names), etc., and
during installation, set appropriate symbolic links to compatible
libraries their installation program found. If a compatible library was
not found, they would provide theirs with appropriate symbolic links.

Cheers,
Dick Johnson
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
Penguin : Linux version 2.2.3 on an i686 machine (400.59 BogoMips).
Warning : It's hard to remain at the trailing edge of technology.


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