Roland Mainz wrote:
> Josh Hurst wrote:
>
>> On 2/5/07, David.Comay at sun.com <David.Comay at sun.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> Known issue. Solaris has the strict rule that we're not allowed to ship
>>>> any *.so files if the API is not public, therefore we do not ship the
>>>> *.so files. However some people may be interested to play around with
>>>> the API (e.g. to build ksh93 plugins (builtin commands, functions etc.))
>>>> ... the *.so links can easily be restored by hand but the lint files
>>>> cannot be "restored" if we don't ship it. That's why we're ending up
>>>> with a weired chimera shipped with three legs where leg No. 4 can be
>>>> substituted with a wooden one on demand (erm... Ok... this metapher
>>>> isn't a good one... ;-( ).
>>>>
>>> I'm confused. If these APIs are not public, then people should not be
>>> playing around with using the APIs except in the context by which
>>> they're ARCed.
>>>
>> The ksh93 API is public for everyone else when compiling the source
>> from ATT. Why are you trying to prevent the usage of the API by adding
>> more barriers? The Solaris manual page already says that Sun considers
>> it 'not public'. Why isn't this enough?
>>
>
> It's not "enougth" because Solaris gurantees some kind of API stabilty
> once there are *.so files and lint libraries around (or better: Read
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/ksh93-integration-discuss/2007-February/002179.html
> , James is much better at explaining the issue... :-) ).
>
> A possible excape route may be to create something like a
> "SUNWastprivateplayground" package which provides the private API
> add-ones as a seperate package stored at the project website... would
> that be allowed ?
>
Sorry, but I think that the existence of *.so files (and maybe also lint
libraries) explicitly does _not_ presume any API stability. (Unless you
consider "unstable/uncomitted" a stability level.)
The only way APIs get stability is via ARC or standards body (POSIX)
approval. All other APIs are implicitly unstable/uncommitted.
Note that historically it has also been generally true also that
unstable/uncommitted APIs are not be documented. Generally once an API
gets documented, it also gets subject to ARC review and also gets
assigned a stability level.
This is at least my understanding of things. If this is not true, maybe
someone from ARC will correct me.
-- Garrett
> ----
>
> Bye,
> Roland
>
>
--
Garrett D'Amore, Principal Software Engineer
Tadpole Computer / Computing Technologies Division,
General Dynamics C4 Systems
http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/
Phone: 951 325-2134 Fax: 951 325-2191
