- From: Daniel W. Connolly <connolly@hal.com>
- Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 21:22:27 -0500
- To: Garrett Arch Blythe <doslynx@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
- Cc: www-lib@www0.cern.ch
- Cc: "Daniel W. Connolly" <connolly@hal.com>, connolly@hal.com
[Again, your message didn't go to the list...] In message <Pine.3.89.9407131652.B25291-0100000@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>, Garrett Arch Blythe write s: >On Wed, 13 Jul 1994, Daniel W. Connolly wrote: >> >> The rest of the users are just that -- users, and they'll be much happier >> with a compiled binary distribution than a K&R C source distribution, >> I wager. > >This is not going to work. Lynx as it stands has about a kazillion >different little ifdefs that Lou left me with, so each compiled binary is >actually different than perhaps the one that I use for debugging which >has everything turned on. The reason why the configuration is at >compile time is to leave out some security problems that some people >simply don't want to deal with, ever. Shame on Lou. #ifdef's are evil. But certainly 80-95% of the world's lynx users are using the same combination of #ifdefs anyway. I expect that two or three compiled versions of the code would suffice for the vast majority of the user population: one with all the gaping security holes wide open, one with all of them turned off, and one somewhere in between. >Precompiled binaries suck. They don't give the person installing full >control of the options provided (for security) and they can't set it up >specifically for their system. These are not insurmountable problems. A well designed product has all the installation-time and run-time switches needed by its customer base. Folks who aren't willing to wait for supported configurations can get the source and build it, of course, but they'll need an ANSI C compiler. I think this is the best way to provide quality software to the largest audience. Witness the explosion of Linux. >I also don't have access to all the machines that I would need to provide >a Lynx binary for, which is every UNIX/VMS/DOS box on the globe. But: do you have access to _one_ person using each platform who has an ANSI C compiler and would be willing to provide binary distribtions? That's all you need. Dan
Received on Thursday, 14 July 1994 04:22:07 UTC