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From: evans@decvax.DEC.COM (Marc Evans)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: SunOS vs. Ultrix comparison
Keywords: SunOS shareable libraries
Message-ID: <518@decvax.decvax.dec.com.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jan 91 19:12:54 GMT
References: <8012@castle.ed.ac.uk> <1991Jan24.074910.6738@pa.dec.com> <1991Jan24.102601@wsl.dec.com>
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Reply-To: evans@decvax.DEC.COM
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Organization: Synergytics
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In article <1991Jan24.102601@wsl.dec.com>, klee@wsl.dec.com (Ken Lee) writes:
|> While it's true that you will see large disk space savings by using
|> shared libraries, it's my understanding that no 3rd party software
|> vendors will use them because of the huge QA and support problems.  Any
|> software vendors care to comment?  Thanks.

Well, I can make a couple of comments, though I am not really vendor.

Apollo in its early years did not provide anything but shared libraries for
use by vendor's applications. Even with the latest versions of the OS's
from Apollo, the shared libraries are by far the more common libraries used.
Why did they start providing static libraries? Because the standards they
were targeting required them is what I've heard.

DEC, on its VMS systems have been using shared libraries for quite some time.
Most third parties make extensive use of these.

The majority of the 386 unix vendors provide shared libraries. Most of the
programs that I have purchased for my 386 box make use of these.

My experience with SunOS and third parties is unfortunately limited, so I
can't really say if vendors are using them, but as you have read above, other
groups make use of shared libraries. I personally don't buy the argument that
QA and support issues are good reasons to not use/provide shared libraries.

- Marc
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Marc Evans - WB1GRH - evans@decvax.DEC.COM  | Synergytics     (603)635-8876
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