On Fri, Dec 02, 2005 at 07:29:22PM +0000, Mike Hearn wrote:
I really, really hope that the line about GCC breaking the C++ ABI again in 4.2 is wrong. How can anybody ever take them credibly if they break their promises not once, not twice, but three times?
It looks increasingly likely that a stable C++ ABI will never happen. Combined with the lack of proper ELF scoping at the symbol level, this makes using C++ in any form on Linux, even like how Inkscape does it, fundamentally unreliable.
This came up in the Desktop Architects' Meeting. Dan Kegel insisted that the gcc folks have made a firm promise not to break the C++ ABI any more. He sounded pretty confident about this, and he seems to be a the sort of guy you can take at his word. I guess we'll see, but this gave me some confidence about it.
Btw, there was also a LOT of talk about other library ABI stabilization (e.g., Gtk) and some mentions of developing better discipline at not breaking them.
Oh, and also Autopackage came up several times. Mike, you should join the desktop architect's list (at lists.osdl.org) and outline some of your plans. Also, I am noticing the Flik people are pushing to have their technology adopted, so I suspect some fair evaluation of Autopackage vs. Flik may be well received there.
Bryce