Hmmm... How is placing a useful library in a standard location like
/usr/local/lib "pollution?"
/usr/local/lib is only marginally different to /sw/lib. If either is
in the default ld/dyld search paths or I use -L/usr/local/lib in a link
command, I am immediately condemned to link all the Fink/whatever stuff
that has been installed, whether I want it or not. That is what I mean
by pollution. Obviously the same applies to headers at compile time.
It has to be put somewhere, and although
it does make it easier to automate their maintenance if they are
segregated into Frameworks, having this great Apple scheme to put
libraries in unusual paths with unusual compiler flags to access them
is a bother to people who just want to port to OS X codes that already
run on Unix. There is no One Great True Path for installing libraries,
IMHO. Both methods have good and bad to them.
I have no argument against that. If you want a trad UNIX set up then
use UNIX or Linux. MacOS X is about being able to easily port UNIX/GNU
stuff, but at the expense of a slight increase in programmer effort it
can achieve great improvements in maintainability, reliability and
usability for non-programmers.
Apple's history is
littered with ideas that are good on paper but which become a big
hassle because nobody outside of Apple buys into them. One of the
great things about Apple now is its BSD underpinnings. Each Unix has
its quirks, but OS X should not be the first to try to do away with
/usr/local!
Even so great a personage as Linus Torvalds has opined that maybe the
GNU community could learn something from it. There really comes a
point at which throwing out the old garbage is a good thing. It is
certainly part of the Steve Jobs philosophy. The original Mac threw
away the book on CLIs. The iMac dropped serial ports, SCSI etc. etc.
Probably without that leap I would still be stuffing around with some
naff serial connection on my digital camera.
The only way for Apple to win this battle is to make it easy to do it
the "right" way and the "wrong" way at the same time.
You are very welcome to the wrong way. I just like to make it clear to
others what I see as the right way. So that things can move forwards.
Bill Northcott
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