Re: Compiling emacs-24.0.90 on AIX 5.3

[Perry Smith <pedzsan@gmail.com>]

On Oct 12, 2011, at 11:58 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> Glenn Morris writes:
> 
>> However, you may be disappointed because I cannot think of any new
>> feature that fits this description. Do you mean Lisp code or literal
>> libfoo.so libraries?
> 
> I suppose he means DLLs that wrap libraries such as zlib or libpng,
> which have until recently been prohibited because they may allow an
> inadvertant run-around the GPL, and now are under consideration
> because a reasonable way to ensure that users who want only GPL
> plugins will get them has been developed.  This would allow writing a
> version of `load' that loads such features on demand (eg, via
> `(require 'dbus)' or similar).  ISTR that the related FFI feature may
> also now be OK.
> 
> Because the wrapper DLLs are demand-loaded, they could be built on a
> "loaded" system with all necessary libraries, and distributed with
> Emacs (eg, on a corporate network).  On a "lightweight" system with
> few system libraries, Emacs would run, but attempts to use those
> features would fail at the `require' stage.  There would be no need to
> recompile Emacs to take advantage of newly added system libraries.
> (In theory; in practice many free software libraries have enough "API
> churn" that even with DLLs you need to rebuild the wrapper DLLs when
> new versions come out.)
> 
> I don't think there's any "official" development roadmap to these
> features yet, just Richard's statement that the GPL marking method
> used by GCC has been vetted by the FSF's lawyers and should be good
> enough for Emacs, too.  AFAIK no decision has been made about whether
> either on-demand DLL loading or FFI is technically suited for Emacs.

This sounds like what I was hoping for.  I use to compile open source software for AIX and put it out for others to use:

http://aix-consulting.net

(the downloads page often does not work.  I works with FF).  That project is kinda on a back burner right now due to various reasons.

The version of emacs listed is fairly stripped down.  I wrestled with what to do for a long time.  It would be great if I could load up a build system, build an emacs with all the features, and then bundle it for others to use but not force them to load up all the libraries if they don't want them.

pedz