Re: [Plplot-devel] Where do we go from here?

[Rafael L. <lab...@mp...>]

* Maurice LeBrun <mj...@ga...> [2002-02-06 21:56]:

> I'm a bit skeptical it would have made a big difference.  It seems to me
> that with the addition of dyndrivers, there were going to be a lot of
> configuration changes regardless of which configuration model we were
> using.

I do not remember if I told you guys about this, but in my private AM/LT
branch (not in CVS) I started porting the dyndrv code to libltdl, a portable
library for manipulating dynamically loaded objects (see
http://www.gnu.org/manual/libtool-1.4.2/html_node/libtool_45.html).  The
goal is to make the dyndrv code largely portable across platforms. By no
means, using libltdl means using libtool, but the two things work nice
together.

> Certainly the commits I made personally left me with that impression.  I
> don't mean to be throwing water on your enthusiasm, I just think it will
> take a while for the payoff from AM/LT (or dyndrivers for that matter) to
> be really evident.  The payoff from cool new features, however, can be
> immediate.

I also think that AM/LT will not bring anything visible for the end-user. My
interest in AM/LT is from the packager point of view.  Believe me, the
current configuration can be a nightmare for people packaging PLplot
(witness rpath problems, non-relocatability, etc).  Besides that,
integrating the TEA stuff may be an easier task in the framework of AM/LT.
I also think that making the configuration scheme more "modern" (yeah, in
the GNU sense...) will make it much more attractive for the potential future
developers joining our team.

> Yeah, I'd feel the most comfortable if the effort were led by Rafael.
> Hopefully no time real soon so I can get some other work done. :)

No doubt, I am the most entitled person to do the job.  Unfortunately, I
have this time budget problem right now.  At any rate, I did not resign from
the project yet, but if I see that I cannot do anything to improve the
situation, I will have to make a decision.  I will tell you when/if this
arrive (I hope not).

-- 
Rafael