Re: XEmacs: ORDINARY_LINK and linux
[Please Cc me if you wish me to see it]
Jerry James writes:
Hi,
I sent the attached message to xemacs-beta yesterday, and was given your
email address in response. Can you shed any light on the question of
why ORDINARY_LINK is not on for Linux? Did it have something to do with
the old libc? In short, is there any good reason why we should NOT turn
ORDINARY_LINK on for Linux now?
No. It wasn't really glibc related either. It had to do with C++
support crap they put in gcc. With an ORDINARY_LINK and the
then-current gcc, XEmacs reliably dropped core after dumping calling a
(I think) stub C++ constructor. Since the old way worked, the new way
did not and I could not make releases with a dysfunctional program the
solution was obvious.
You're going to screw someone by changing it now, but I would suggest
trying it on the major distros and if it works on them, then it would
be O.K. If I recall correctly, the GCC version in question is the
same version that Red Hat still ships as kgcc, but if it is only being
used to compile the Linux kernel and not any libraries, it doesn't
matter. The problem may have been due to mixing compilation of
libraries between different gcc versions. In that case, it is
definitely safe to change it.
The fight between Martin and me over this was public and vocal. There
should be _something_ in the archives.
By the way, I hope someone has already removed the JPEG support in
XEmacs. This patent crap makes me want to puke.