More information on the X11R7.0/X11R6.9 release

More information on the X11R7.0/X11R6.9 release

Posted Dec 24, 2005 9:34 UTC (Sat) by dwmw2 (subscriber, #2063)
In reply to: More information on the X11R7.0/X11R6.9 release by arcticwolf
Parent article: More information on the X11R7.0/X11R6.9 release

Actually it's not clear that autohell would help nethack when it comes to cross-compiling. Nethack builds data files on the host and assumes that the endianness, structure sizes etc. are going to be compatible with the target. In my experience of cross-compiling projects, that's precisely the type of behaviour which made me come to loathe autohell. Not because such behaviour is mandated -- but just because it seems to be what comes naturally to most autohell users. They seem to like to run tests on the host and assume that the results will be valid for the target. Or compile for the target and then attempt to run the result on the host to find out the behaviour.

Autohell is just a tool -- it isn't inherently evil. But it's a tool which is very easy to use badly, and I'd really prefer to see it die out. Portable code and sane toolchains would be a much better answer.

I would personally pay for a licence for GNU ld for anyone and everyone who wanted it, if it meant that they'd then refrain from using libtool.

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