Shared libraries

[Robert Elz]

rickert at mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

>You have just listed as a benefit of shared libraries that feature which
>can cause perfectly good working programs to suddenly be broken just because
>someone changed the shared libraries.

Yes, of course - the power to improve is also the power to destroy.
This isn't a disadvantage of the mechanism, its an advantage.
Like anything powerful, if misused, it can be dangerous.

The same argument could be used with respect to the kernel - its not
part of the application, so it can be changed - if changed in an
improper way applications will break, so obviously it must be a
"major disadvantage" to have a separate kernel, and not have it
complete linked into every application.

kre