[D-runtime] Time for druntime for Linux64 to default to a shared lib

[Brad Roberts]

On Wed, 13 Mar 2013, Walter Bright wrote:

> On 3/13/2013 11:32 AM, Alex R?nne Petersen wrote:
> > While I can see where you're coming from, let's not rush things. We need to 
> > make _at least_ one release with shared library support that has to be 
> > selected explicitly with a -shared flag. We cannot just disrupt everyone by 
> > throwing shared libraries at them with no prior warning or testing having 
> > happened.
> 
> 
> I can pretty much guarantee that if we don't make shared druntime the default, 
> nobody is going to use it, and it will not work.
> 
> For example, while Martin had made all these shared library changes, as far as
> I 
> can tell:
> 
> 1. nobody even tried to make druntime.so
> 
> 2. even after I checked in the makefile changes to build druntime.so, nobody 
> tried to run the test suite on it
> 
> 3. at least for 32 bit druntime.so, any program built with it promptly
> crashes. 
> Nobody noticed this, so I am pretty sure nobody has tried it. (llmath is the 
> culprit, I have a pull request in to fix that)
> 
> There are also significant problems with trying to ship the current scheme
> *and* 
> the dll scheme. The libraries are built differently, the dmd.conf is
> different, 
> etc. It's a problem, and I don't see a convenient solution for coexistence. If 
> there is a way to statically bind druntime.so as Martin suggested, that could
> be 
> the solution, but it is still having druntime.so being the default.
> 
> It's early in this cycle, so it's the best time to do it.

It's been _possible_ for all of a few days.  There hasn't been an alpha or 
beta release with a .so pre-built.  It's hardly shocking that there's 
essentially zero experience with running it.

I fully agree with the "its too soon" sentiment.  There's a set of people 
that _really_ want it, and I think it's fairly safe to assume that they'll 
play and report issues.  No need to inflict the pain on everyone until 
SOME people have kicked the tires.  Reach out, engage with some people.  
Get SOME realish world testing done.