QLandkarte GT

Hi Lisandro,

I do not really understand what's the problem. The library is linked statically and won't conflict with any other copy in the system. It's small, thus I think the footprint is bearable. And usually it's not installed on other systems. Thus it would be just another lousy dependency to take care of. Especially on Windows and OS X. But even in Linux there are many users that are overexerted by too many dependencies, if it comes to compiling the software on their own.

That's why it is part of the 3rd party libs in QLGT. To move it from there will make life not better just more compicated.


Oliver

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:08:44 -0300
> Von: "Lisandro Damián Nicanor Pérez Meyer" <perezmeyer@...>
> An: qlandkartegt-users@...
> Betreff: [Qlandkartegt-users] Embedded copy of qextserialport

> Note: please CC me, I'm not subscribed to the list.
> 
> Hi! I am the maintainer of qextserialport in Debian. In a few days I'll
> ask 
> the maintainer of qlandkartegt to avoid using the embedded copy of it and
> use 
> the dynamic library instead.
> 
> I thought it would be better to ask you to add a way to let downstream use
> the 
> external lib rather than the embedded copy. I wanted to file a bug, but I 
> couldn't find a bug tracker :-(
> 
> Please do not heasitate to ask for more info if needed.
> 
> Kinds regards, Lisandro.
> 
> -- 
> Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses.
> Every single time.
>   Linus Benedict Torvalds.
> 
> Lisandro Damián Nicanor Pérez Meyer
> http://perezmeyer.com.ar/
> http://perezmeyer.blogspot.com/

On Mon 17 Dec 2012 04:47:50 Oliver Eichler escribió:
> Hi Lisandro,

Hi Oliver!
 
> I do not really understand what's the problem. The library is linked
> statically 

That's the problem :-) Allow me to explain it.

> and won't conflict with any other copy in the system. It's
> small, thus I think the footprint is bearable. And usually it's not
> installed on other systems. Thus it would be just another lousy dependency
> to take care of. Especially on Windows and OS X. But even in Linux there
> are many users that are overexerted by too many dependencies, if it comes
> to compiling the software on their own.
> 
> That's why it is part of the 3rd party libs in QLGT. To move it from there
> will make life not better just more compicated.

While your reasons are good, embedded copies are not good for distros ([0], 
third paragraph). Imagine that there is a security bug in qextserialport, we 
need to find *every* embedded copy of the lib, fix it, build it and re upload.

While I come from Debian, the problem also exists on Red Hat too [1].

While normally we do suggest upstream to not embed copies of another projects 
in the tarball, there is another intermediate way to solve this: add a way to 
use an external lib instead of compiling and linking the embedded copy.

Please do not heasitate to mail me back if you have further ideas/doubts.

[0] <http://wiki.debian.org/UpstreamGuide#Source_only_tarball>
[1] <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=872883>

Kinds regards, Lisandro.

-- 
Evite los parámetros estáticos. Si son inevitables, haga que el emisor
y el receptor negocien un valor.
  Andrew S. Tanenbaum, de su libro "Computer Networks"

Lisandro Damián Nicanor Pérez Meyer
http://perezmeyer.com.ar/
http://perezmeyer.blogspot.com/