Re: ABI Compatibility (was Re: Installation woes for the average user...)

[Fred Kiefer]

Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
> On 20 May 2009, at 11:53, Yavor Doganov wrote:
>> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 11:24:39AM +0100, Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
>>> However, I don't think there have been any recent releases which should
>>> have changed the so number for any of the libraries.
>>
>> I've made an experiment some time ago by altering the symlinks without
>> recompiling anything.  Every GNUstep app in Debian worked out of the box
>> (of course that's not a 100% proof that the new Base/GUI were ABI
>> compatible).
> 
> I agree ... not even close to proof.
> 
> Most ABI changes are minor and won't effect most applications ... but we
> still need to change the soname because we don't know whether there are
> apps out there which will break.

I know that there have been incompatible changes to the gui library, I
am very sure about that as I made them. You are right, though. Most
applications wouldn't have noticed and for base the change probably
wasn't needed.

Fred