Re: [Patch] skipping import libraries for performance reasons - direct auto-import of dll's

[Charles Wilson <cwilson at ece dot gatech dot edu>]

Ralf Habacker wrote:

> > Please separate policy arguments from functional arguments.  Whether
> > cygwin/mingw should drop import libs is policy.  Whether libtool should
> > use/create import libs is policy.  Whether ld should support auto-import
> > when doing "link-directly-to-dll" is functional.
> Okay, you mean to separate the threads. The functional things at first and if
> this works then the policy.
> Let's talk about the first.

Sortof.  policy discussions of import libs on cygwin belong on the 
cygwin list; ditto implibs on mingw --> mingw list.  But not on 
binutils, and not crossposted.

Policy discussions about libtool handling of import libs on cygwin 
belong on the cygwin list, or the libtool list, or maybe both.  But not 
on binutils.

Implementation of a new ld.exe feature for cygwin probably belongs on 
binutils or cygwin or maybe both, but in that case the discussion should 
be limited to that implementation -- and not drift off into the above 
policy issues.

Just being (pedantically) clear -- but it appears you already got this, 
since you dropped all discussion of the policy issues in your reply 
(although cgf ressurrected one of them; I'll follow up on that *policy* 
question in a reply limited to the appropriate lists).

My main point was that you didn't need to drag (possibly) contentious 
policy issues into the discussion; they'll just distract from the goal 
of merging a useful new feature/capability into binutils --- the feature 
is worthwhile regardless of any surrounding policy debates.  Secondarily 
(and here we drift off into policy again), while I like the idea of your 
patch, and think it should probably be merged after some testing, that 
positive opinion on the implementation does not reflect agreement on the 
(definitely) contentious policy issues you raised.  But we'll save that 
discussion for the appropriate lists, and the appropriate time (e.g. 
after the feature itself is merged).


> > However...
> >
> > There does not seem to be any support in your patch for the most recent
> > auto-import capabilities
> It supports this stuff. 

Okkkaaayyy....I didn't really see that from perusing the patch.  I'll 
have to run a bunch of checks and make sure none of my obscure test 
cases get broken by it.  That'll have to wait until Thurs or Fri (vacation).

--Chuck