Re: Should we distribute libltdl?

[Marius Vollmer]

Bruce Korb <address@hidden> writes:

> My opinion:  the more impediments to installation that there are
> results in more folks deciding that it isn't worth the bother.
> I really hate downloading a package only to find that there's
> a bunch of other stuff to find, download and install first.

Yes, but I think Guile is very reasonable with its "bunch of other
stuff".  It only really requires libgmp and libltdl.  The versions of
these that are in the mainstream distributions should suffice.

Also, the question right is not whether should rely on libltdl, it is
whether we should distribute libltdl and automatically install it when
needed.  That is, should Guile say "You don't seem to have libltdl, I
will quietly install it for you." or should it say loudly "You don't
seem to have libltdl, please install it, for example from ..."?

On Debian, for example, it would be much cleaner to "apt-get install
libltdl3-dev" instead of letting Guile install libltdl into
/usr/local/lib, say.