[BioLib-dev] GSL

[Pjotr Prins]

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 10:01:34AM -0500, Chris Fields wrote:
> The same happens with perl itself.  Due to worries about backwards- 
> compat issues they have put off 5.10.1 for over a year now (it was due  
> last summer).

That is really my point. Because biolib controls all dependencies,
and names its own libraries, there are no conflicts with other
versions. You can decide to safely run different versions of biolib.

When all regression and unit tests succeed we are in business.

The GSL is actually the only problematic one, as I have imported the
autoconf toolset for it, which is kinda flaky in this setup. But I
think we will get rid of that soon enough.

For me, it is all about stability and predictability. I have a long
history in software deployment. It is one reason I designed the build
system like it is now. But I agree that, when libraries are stable
enough, it makes sense to move that responsibility to the packagers.
There is not a hair on my (sparsely covered) head which would include
the sources of zlib.  For one.

Pj.