Re: static linked lua with loaded modules

[Robert Raschke <rrlua@...>]

Stefan Sandberg wrote:
> What do you mean by loss of control? What is it you're "trading away" as 
> it were, by linking statically?

By linking statically, I know (with reasonably great confidence) that
the code that is getting run is the one I compiled, regardless of the
environment where it was installed.  By using dynamic libs I will need
to find out if the environment did not get in the way, before I regain
that confidence.

If a user reports an issue, then my impression is that, if I need more
information, the user appreciates it a lot more if my questions are
about the issue at hand, rather than about their operating
environment.  This may be as simple as a difference between "please
send me your configuration file" vs. "what is your PATH setting when
you're running the app".  Since I operate a lot in the Windows arena,
questions along the latter line can get a bit out of hand, depending a
lot on the system knowledge of the user.  The less additional info the
user has to send me, the quicker I will figure out how to proceed.

There are ways around this, like wrapping the executable call in a
shell script that constructs the environment, or even having a wrapper
executable.  But that's another bit of code that can go wrong.  Too
much scaffolding gets rickety quick.  I like simplicity, And I'm
probably a control freak :-)

Don't get me started on how you're meant to start up Java apps.

Robby