Re: gtk+-perl and enlightenment

[willer interlog com (Steve Willer)]

On Fri, 28 Aug 1998 11:46:33 -0400 (EDT), you wrote:

>Yet another example where Microsoft-style interface versioning would
>be nice...

No way. gtk-perl should have been linking with a 1.0-specific name for
the shared library. Microsoft-style library versioning clobbers old
files, and interface versioning is their overreaction to get around
that. Why should a library maintainer have to maintain binary
compatibility or even interface compatibility with all previous
versions, when he could simply not overwrite the old library and leave
it on the user's system?

I've had my fair share of time fighting Microsoft's versioning system,
and it's been a disaster every time. Haven't you noticed that when they
want to go in a new direction with their APIs, they end up making one
with an entirely new name? MyInterface2-style stuff is really just
MyInterface + some extra functions in practice; to actually _change_
functions, you basically need to create a new API, further cluttering
the user's system.