Michael Schwendt wrote:
On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:29:42 -0600, Matthew wrote:
>> There are just too many -devel packages and their dependencies to be ever
>> relevant to someone for multi-arch installs. Far more users install i686 on
>> 64-bit CPUs, and I have doubts that x86_64 installation users do much
>> development with i686 packages. At most they install 32-bit apps where
>> 64-bit builds aren't available or "less good".
>
> You forget people developing proprietary software...
Why would development of proprietary software have different requirements
with regard to multilib installations?
...because said developers are more likely to be developing i686
packages on x86_64.
Mostly, I disagree with your ratio of "people who need multilib" versus
"people for whom multilib causes problems" differently. Probably because
I need multilib and have never experienced multilib-related problems (or
if I have, they were so trivial as to be thoroughly forgettable).
> Multilib is useful if you want to build the 32-bit version of
> something on an x86_64 box (and don't want to set up a full chroot
> / VM).
The "don't want to" is questionable. Development of the 32-bit version
would still need a full 32-bit test installation.
A test installation of /what you built/, yes. And you have that, since
you just built it. (From that, I guess that you consider testing of a
32-bit program invalid unless done on a pure 32-bit kernel? I sure don't.)
It need not be the x86_64 box to do full multi-booting instead of
VM, but even multi-booting would be convenient enough, considering
how quickly something like Fedora can be installed. Typical
development is not trial-and-error compilation of both 64-bit and
32-bit and alternating, but rather development on either arch till
something is ready to be built for and to be tested on a different
arch.
You obviously have a different definition of "typical" than I do.
For $DAYJOB we build both 32- and 64-bit at the same time and test both
within the same test suite. That's my "typical". Given that Windows (go
figure) is the only platform for which we consider 32- versus 64-bit to
be different ports, that's not likely to change.
Multi-booting is not only inconvenient, it isn't an option. Multilib
*is* the method we use to build and test. End of story.
--
Matthew
Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.
--
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(paraphrased German saying)