[openbeos] Re: binary compat [was Re: Re: BFS and encryption.]
- From: Erik Reid <reide@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 11:00:11 -0700
Quoth David Sowsy:
>> compatibility mentioned back when R5 was still being worked on be
>> be,inc (gcc 3.0, better kernel virtual memory , performance issues,
>> etc), so it might not be a bad idea to consider doing so if there are
>> compelling reasons for us to do so. yes, it would be a good thing to
>> keep compatability if possible, but it should not be so sacred that we
>> get into the mess of trying to keep compat with a 20 year old os. ;)
>
>We're not trying to keep compatibility with a 20 year old, us, but
>to just run out and immediately break binary compatibility is foolish.
>A 6 mos. (minimum) to a one or two year window to 'Phase out'
>compatibility is more appropriate.
Wouldn't it be possible to provide people with backwards compatibility
for older binary formats? I know netbsd does this, and even has extended
it to linux/freebsd/solaris/etc compatibility.. Of course, in order to
have a dynamically linked executable run, you have to have the old libraries
around someplace, but that's not much of a loss for the usability gain, imho.
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