> 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.)
And we do not assume that either. However, not all developers are as careful as you when it comes to using interfaces. Moreover, there is a bigger issue with those who grab and build third-party software that uses a private library (which happens to exist on other Unix variants). If we provide the links, that software will probably build, but may later stop working when the machine is upgraded and that API is changed. We'd like to avoid that sort of delayed breakage by having things fail up-front. -- meem
