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Using the packaged versions that comes with the OS is very convenient if you can live with the versions you get. This means that you might have to update your a
by vinkelhake 12y ago
Using the packaged versions that comes with the OS is very convenient if you can live with the versions you get. This means that you might have to update your application code when updating the operating system.
This can be fine for open source development, but it has never been acceptable at any closed source shop where I've worked. We wanted the freedom of not updating things in lockstep.
- frankzinger 12y agoThis is exactly why 'stable' or 'long-term-support' versions of OSes exist. They go out of their way not to break binary compatibility (by not upgrading libraries all the time) so that user code need not be recompiled.
- vinkelhake 12y agoThat just means that forced updates are less frequent. The flipside of it is that you are now stuck with, potentially, ancient packages. No matter how you slice it, being tied to the release cycle of the OS has problems. Don't get me wrong, there are definite advantages to sticking with OS-provided packages. I do it for all my personal projects, but it's not a panacea.
- frankzinger 12y agoThat is a tradeoff every software repo is faced with (stability vs. new features). Why would a C++-specific PM be able to do it better? Especially considering that it would have to provide compiled binaries for N versions of M OSes/distros (not to mention multiple CPU architectures).