shared libraries

[laura at utcsstat.UUCP]

The flip side of the "gee wouldnt it be nice if everyone got the new
changes without having to recompile everything" is not so much fun.

Many users write software that depnds on the features (bugs) of existing
routines. If you fix the bugs, you break their code. The standard
situation is for some soul to come staggering into your office complaining
that this program which worked perfectly on June 4, 1980 is no longer
working. They dont know when it stopped working. They werent even at
the university 2 years ago, but their supervisor said that his last
grad student used it and...

And they dont know how to program in C, and they need the program
right away, and they dont know the algorithm it is trying to implement,
and would you please fix it right away??

This is a hassle. People who are interested in saving themselves work
need to consider this. It doesnt matter that people should have written
correct code in the first place -- I can guarantee that they wont...

laura creighton
utcsstat!laura