[PPL-devel] debian/control: build-depends

[Roberto Bagnara]

Michael Tautschnig wrote:
> I just checked out the debian/control file and found
> 
> - dependencies on g++ *Version 3.4.2* - why does it depend on exactly 
> this single version

In general, all versions of GCC have changed the implemented C++ ABI
in one way or another.  This means that you cannot expect a C++ library
compiled with GCC version x to work with a C++ program compiled with
GCC version y if x != y.  The situation will no doubt improve in the
future, but up to now things have been like this (to put it more
directly: the user should use the very same version of g++ the
packager did use).

Then, both 3.4.1 and 3.4.3 have bugs that affect the library.
For 3.4.1 I was not completely sure the bug was in the compiler
(as opposed to binutils or some other component of the toolchain).
For 3.4.3 the situation was much worse and I had to quickly
uninstall that version of the compiler from my machines.

Finally, I believe we now depend on C++ features that are not
correctly supported by 3.3.x.

> - missing dependencies on automake1.9 and autoconf

Automake and autoconf are only needed by developers.
People downloading tarballs or packages do not need Automake,
Autoconf or Libtool.  This is, at least, the intention.
If I am mistaken, please let me know.
Cheers,

     Roberto

-- 
Prof. Roberto Bagnara
Computer Science Group
Department of Mathematics, University of Parma, Italy
http://www.cs.unipr.it/~bagnara/
mailto:bagnara at cs.unipr.it