Re: Request for Compiler Independent Extern "C" APIs...

[Brendan Eich]

> Speaking as a unix hacker ...
> 
> Correct versioning on library names (which MS has *never* had)

Really?  jband tells me of resource info in DLLs used for versioning.  
blizzard says redhat and others use an ELF section similarly, in 
addition to the poor-man's version-metadata hacked into the filename 
(hey, I'm an old Unix hacker too, filename hacking with versionless 
symlinks suit me).

>  is what
> supposed to prevent this on unix. And it's a system that's worked pretty
> well.

Versionitis is a downside I've observed, but it comes in wave crests as 
new versions come out, and we hope for long, gentle troughs in which the 
new version suffices for all (upgraded) apps.

> Anytime that fails (i.e. the so major version number doesn't indicate
> compability) the authors should be shot. But interfaces can break with a
> component system too (correct versioning is policy, not mechanism ...).

Yes.

We need bugs on file to make Mozilla's DLLs/DSOs have the right 
version-fu on all platforms.  I know of none.  Cc'ing dveditz for advice 
on bugfiling.

/be