Re: Is it possible/acceptable to create a component in Gambas that depends on a shared library?

[Lee <t.lee.davidson@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/7/26 12:09 AM, Claus Dietrich wrote:
> Am 07.02.26 um 00:10 schrieb Benoît Minisini:
> > I suggest you try to do what you want, and that you show me the result if you want my opinion.
>
> I didn't raise this subject but like to offer the attached project for the discussion. It is simple and represents a media 
> player based on the VLC library. Its functions are wrapped into a "VLCPlayer" - class and it can to things which I wasn't able 
> to achieve with gb.media (i.e. watching IP-TV).
>
> While working on it (with the great support of Vuott for the C API stuff) I started wondering, why we don't have a gb.vlc 
> component and whether it would be feasible to make a Gambas component out of this project. Are Gambas means sufficient or does 
> it need more than that? How to deal with changing versions of libraries? Can the component specify the VLC library as a 
> dependency and would the VLC library be installed with the installation of a gb.vlc?
>
> To Lee: I hope that this reflects your subject and raises all your questions. If not, forget this post.
>
> Best regards
>
> Claus

Regarding changing versions of libraries, I think that minor version bumps should not be an issue. Sane developers make their 
libraries backwards compatible at least until a major version bump. And shared libraries, as I have seen, have multiple symbolic 
links to the actual library file.

For example "zbar" uses this linking scheme:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     16 Dec 15 12:35 /usr/lib/libzbar.so -> libzbar.so.0.3.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     16 Dec 15 12:35 /usr/lib/libzbar.so.0 -> libzbar.so.0.3.0
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 243856 Dec 15 12:35 /usr/lib/libzbar.so.0.3.0

So, the library could be specified with 'LIBRARY "libzbar:0"' so that it raises a runtime error if there has been a major 
version bump before the component maintainer has updated the component. At least that's how I think I would do it.

Regarding another two questions you asked, "Can the component specify the VLC library as a dependency and would the VLC library 
be installed with the installation of a gb.vlc?", I would break them apart and add to them:
Can the component specify the VLC library as a dependency?  If so, how?
Would the VLC library be installed with the installation of a gb.vlc?

In my opinion, your post is very much on topic. Please feel free to carry on with any discussion.


--
Lee

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