[Xquartz-dev] 2.3.0-rc6

[Jordan K. Hubbard]

On Jul 13, 2008, at 4:34 AM, Martin Costabel wrote:

> The argument remains valid: If you remove the *.la files, you cut off
> any upgrade path. Now I don't know if Macports cares about  
> upgradability
> from Leopard to SnowLeopard, but I know that Fink does. Your move will
> be a major headache for anyone compiling  software on their own Mac.

It's still not clear to me what utility is being provided by the .la  
files, however - can someone perhaps speak to that a little (from an  
external perspective)?  The question is important given that we're  
also looking at nuking the .la files for other projects in SnowLeopard.

Why?  Well, their inclusion has been very haphazard and, from what I  
can tell, more accidental than deliberate in MacOSX.  If you count the  
number of projects that *could* have .la files, you get anywhere from  
30-40 projects.  If you then count the number of projects which *do*  
(not including X11), you get 11.  Clearly, this is not a cohesive  
strategy in action and I'm told that stale .la files can be far worse  
than none in some circumstances, so there is also potential for harm  
here.   I would welcome some feedback on the topic while the decision  
is still pending.

> BTW, I just finished installing xcode-3.1, and there the size of
> X11SDK.pkg is 972KB, about the size of the xterm executable. It is by
> now patently absurd to keep this as a separate package, updated
> independently of the rest of X11.

I agree.  Unless we find some particular reason that demands we keep  
them separate, I would have no problem with merging the two.

- Jordan