[doc] wvWare

[Brent J. Nordquist]

On Fri, 3 Nov 2000, Scott Martin <martin@math.ohiou.edu> wrote:

> Come to find
> out that the dynamic linker runtime bindings needed configured. I had to add
> the default directory for the libttf library (/usr/local/lib) to
> /etc/ld.so.conf and run "ldconfig". So my question is this. Is this process
> (I.E. having to edit the file, add the directory and run "ldconfig")
> compatible with what all unix platforms have to do to get the dynamic
> linking configured?

Ugh!  This brings back lots of ugly memories from my last job, where I was
the integrator for a product that compiled on 20+ versions of 12+ vendors'
versions of UNIX.

Suffice it to say:  no, there's no easy way to generalize shared library
handling.  And it isn't just OS+version, either... it's compiler.  
Solaris with GCC works differently from Solaris with SPARCworks (now
Forte), for example.  It's what drives a lot of people to just stick to
static libraries, to avoid all the hassle... even though shared libraries
have advantages.

I've read the rest of the mail up to this point, and I guess my thoughts
are as follows:

(1)  I agree that the best place to find current, correct information on
compiling a prerequisite (speaking in general terms) is with that
product's documentation.

(2)  I think for external binaries (ispell/aspell, wvHtml, etc.) that
aren't in the compile path (or critical path) for PHP, Horde, and the
modules, that we're better off just saying "see their documentation".  I
think it's going to be a lot of work to try to keep up with these as they
change.

(3)  I can see that for things that ARE in the PHP/Horde/modules critical
path (such as c-client, OpenLDAP library, etc.), it is helpful to have
some instructions on how to compile them... because the process of getting
everything you need to get Horde+IMP running can be daunting.  But the
same caveat applies... having it stay accurate for lots of platforms is
going to take a lot of work.  I think keeping the list as small as
possible is therefore wise.

-- 
Brent J. Nordquist <bjn@horde.org>
Yahoo!: Brent_Nordquist / AIM: BrentJNordquist / ICQ: 76158942