Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!basser!usage!sdipl!andrews
From: andrews@sdipl.oz (Andrew Schonberger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: X11R3 - When ?
Summary: make libraries shareble at runtime
Message-ID: <178@sdipl.oz>
Date: 1 Dec 89 19:42:29 GMT
References: <1951@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> <4671c36f.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Reply-To: andrews@sdipl.sdi.oz.au (Andrew Schonberger)
Organization: sdi
Lines: 41


		I wrote and posted this a month ago, but a local gateway 
		was not forwarding comp.sys.apollo

In article <4671c36f.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> dawson@apollo.HP.COM (Keith Dawson) 
writes:
    >At SR10.2, Domain/X11 (the "share-mode" server) v1.2 will be bundled
    >with base software. This is an R3 server in all the ways that matter.
    >All supplied clients are the R3 versions, as are all the libraries
    >(libXt, libX11, libXaw, ...). 

Did anyone think about makeing these libraries 'installed' ones?
I thought about doing it myself, but there are some signs suggesting it's 
not a trivial task.

First, the Domain/OS Programming Environment manual has a warning:
	Do not confuse INSTALLED LIBRARIES with LIBRARY FILES. Installed
	libraries are simply object files that are put into workstation's
	or process's address space. Library files are ... collections of
	object files.

Second, the manpages for 'cc' and 'ld' shortly describe options like:

		-W0,-pic     (for position-independent-code) 
		-A loadhigh  (load at higher addresses)
		-A allmarks  (make all sections public)

Fine, so an installed library must be a SINGLE object file and must be
created carefully. I'd rather like to have this done by Apollo, just as
they did with the C library. 

I assume it's worth doing, not only for the basic libX11, but also 
for libXt and libXaw. Just watch the increase in size when a compiled
object module (using widgets) gets linked with these libraries. 

When a workstation runs X-windows, there are always a few clients active, 
and much of their code consists of common widget and Xlib modules. 
Having a single copy of the library code would reduce memory requirements
and make updates/patches more easy to install.

Andrew Schonberger         -my opinions are private only-

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