Font_ApplyFields problem

[David J. Ruck]

On 7 Nov 2001 Tony van der Hoff <tony at mk-net.demon.co.uk> wrote:

[Why binary compatibility is necessary]

> Alternatively, and maybe more plausibly, A was linked against a 3rd-party
> library, which itself was built against an OSLib using 8-bit handles. You
> may be correct in asserting that any professional will recompile his
> sources, but he is unlikely (even if he could) to rebuild support
> libraries.

Ah now that is a good point, I must say I hadn't considered. You usually
expect 3rd party libraries to be self contained (or at the very most
requiring linking against standard C lib stubs) and it may not be obvious it
was only partially linked against OSLib, if you are also using OSLib.

So I'd recommend everyone to be careful when relinking with 3rd party
libraries or even your own. Check the dependencies of the libraries and
rebuild from source if available, otherwise be very careful.

Even though OSLib strives to be binary compatible, it would only take
something line a fix to ensure return parameter is updated when previously it
was not to break some code. If that code is in a library you wont even know
to check for it when comparing OSLib change logs for side effects.

Cheers
---Dave

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  David J. Ruck    Phone: +44- (0)7974 108301    Email: druck at freeuk.com
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