Re: [Plib-users] Error: can not find working glut

[Curtis L. O. <cu...@fl...>]

Steve Baker writes:
> I suspect an annoying (but growing) trend with distro makers that
> they have TWO versions of every RPM that relates to libraries - one
> is the "Development Version" - which comes with headers and
> binaries, the other contains *just* the binaries.
> 
> I've seen this with the latest version of SuSE and it's *INCREDIBLY*
> annoying.

Debian has done this for quite some time.

The regular part comes with just the .so's, the ; the -dev portion includes
the headers and the .a's in case any developers would want to
statically link.

> The header files take up very little space - and if they install the
> library without the headers then it can only be used by binary-only
> applications.  When you try to install a source-code based project,
> it *looks* like the library is installed when you ask RPM about it -
> but in fact it's only halfway installed.

Without touching on what *should* be done, I believe the intention is
exactly what you allude to ... install the minimum possible portion of
the library to allow binaries to run.  Remember packaging for most
people is all about pre-compiled binaries.

There are some benefits to this approach.  It minimizes download times
and hard drive consumption (don't forget that the -dev versions of the
lib package also include the .a's.)  It gives *most* people exactly
what they want.

It's been this way on Debian ever since I can remember so I'm used to
it and don't think twice about apt-get'ing the -dev portion.

But, to be fair, there is a downside to this approach (which touches
on some of the down sides to package management in general.)

I'll make you a deal: As soon as you come up with a scheme that does
exactly what *everyone* wants 100% of the time, I'll invest my life
savings in your company, or vote for you, or do what ever is
appropriate for your particular scheme. :-)

Curt.
-- 
Curtis Olson   IVLab / HumanFIRST Program       FlightGear Project
Twin Cities    cu...@me...                  cu...@fl...
Minnesota      http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt   http://www.flightgear.org