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From: marbru@auto-trol.com (Martin Brunecky)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: R5 wish
Keywords: r5
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.154057.3342@auto-trol.com>
Date: 3 Jun 91 15:40:57 GMT
References: <49747@ut-emx.uucp> <1991Jun2.234509.1263@emisle.uucp>
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In article <1991Jun2.234509.1263@emisle.uucp> dvb@emisle.UUCP (David Van Beveren) writes:
>
>You know, X is not part of 'vanilla' unix. (Yet). And until it is, putting
>things in /usr/include, /usr/lib and /usr/bin is uncalled for. This is
>especially true for things that are hard coded in clients, and there are still
>a few of those around. Could you imagine a DOS application program that
>insisted on being on the C: drive in a certain directory. That program would
>be considered very non-flexible. (aka bad)
>
   The whole problem is that Unix as a whole has not realized (yet) that
   for customers environments, it's philosophy of grouping files "by type"
   rather than "by package/release" is inadequate.

   Sure, for hackers it makes life easier to shove all libraries into a single
   place, all header files into on place: the hacker then only uses one -I or
   -L (if even that). 
   But an end user does NOT care about hacker's/developers convenience. 
   He wants to clearly seperate individual packages on his systems. He wants
   to isolate those from the OS upgrades (which often destroy the entire
   /usr/lib/ and similar).
   For example, if you want to remove X from your system, how do you identify
   all it's pieces ? (sure, knowing the MIT tree, not that big task - just
   look for all the "things" starting with X or /X - but what if the system
   has some other product which likes "X" on it...).

   IMHO X should NEVER be considered a part of 'vanilla' unix. It is not a base,
   essential system component. It is a package running on the top of Unix. Very
   often, X from different vendors (or different releases of X) may be
   needed on the same system. Munging X into 'vanilla', hardware vendor
   provided Unix directory tree is simply a mistake.

-- 
=*= Opinions presented here are solely of my own and not those of Auto-trol =*=
Martin Brunecky                      marbru%auto-trol@sunpeaks.central.sun.com
(303) 252-2499                       (better avoid:  marbru@auto-trol.COM )
Auto-trol Technology Corp. 12500 North Washington St., Denver, CO 80241-2404