On Jan 26, 2004, at 3:09 PM, Nathan Strange wrote:
The problem is when a useful library gets clobbered. I hate
installers that clobber
tar with gnu tar, or that clobber Apple's gcc with some newer version
that doesn't
implement objective-C correctly.
I haven't seen fink clobber anything yet. Come to think of it, I
haven't really had many problems at all with fink yet.
Presumably, though, if you are installing a new gcc, you will be
careful not to clobber Apple's, which should not be /usr/local/bin
anyhow.
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.
On an OS X system, installers should respect the OS X way of doing
things!
This attitude has cost Apple countless programmers through the years,
including yours truly. Apple needs to treat their programmers as
nicely as they try to treat their customers. They have greatly
improved, by making OS X into Unix. http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/unix/
Installers that dump their stuff in /usr/local are just as bad as OS-9
type
installers that dump their stuff all over the file tree and system
folders.
I can tell that things are getting religious here, as we start to use
"good" and "bad" without any explanation or elaboration. :-)
Both methods have good and bad to them. 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!
The human interface guidelines have worked well. Not all apps adhere
to them, but
most do. And most Mac users appreciate apps that follow the standards.
I didn't know that putting your libraries in /System/Library/Frameworks
was a human interface guidelines. But don't get me started on Apple's
HIG's, because Apple is not following them themselves. Have you used
Mail.app lately? I do, and I submit about 3 bug reports per week,
dealing with usability.
--
Richard Cook
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Bldg-451 Rm-2043, Mail Stop L-561
7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
phone (925) 423-9605 (work) fax (925) 423-8704
---
Information Management & Graphics Grp., Services & Development Div.,
Integrated Computing & Communications Dept.
(opinions expressed herein are mine and not those of LLNL)
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