| > Right, if you want Win32 API [...] Okay but which updates [...] Ok these are real things to ask for, that someone could feasibly attempt to do. These are examples. I'm not asking to use Win32 or add updates to Gtk1 or Gtk2. The important part is keeping ABI and API stability. Also i refer to what i'd like to see in a hypothetical library that did things right, not the current ones that either keep doing everything wrong (Gtk) or even if they wanted they can't due to the tech they're based on (Qt, though chances are even Qt could stay API and ABI compatible they wouldn't because they're primary middleware for paying corporations and only secondary a platform library that happened by chance thanks to KDE). > OpenGL is not really a good example because while it might be easy to add some things like vsync and triple buffering, other things (like GPU parallelization) are basically impossible (or extremely impractical) to try to hack into in the GL implementation. The fixed function mode is always going to have its limitations. It is a great example because it shows that it can remain API and ABI compatible for decades. Also both CPU and GPU parallelization could be implemented with extensions (though GPU parallelization is something that GPU vendors seem to be moving away from) in a variety of ways, e.g. using display lists in different threads a per-thread shared context that records a thread-local command list for the operations inside the display list than later can be executed via the render thread. Similarly different contexts can be "bound" to different GPUs and yet allow for resource sharing. Those may or may not need new APIs (most likely will) but are still possible. Or a more low-level approach like Nvidia's command list extension could be used instead. > But someone has to actually put in the work to get it. Keep in mind, it is not helpful to keep requesting that small open source projects do things exactly how a trillion dollar corporation is able to. You are wasting your time asking for that. Well, i'm not explicitly asking for someone to do anything, especially from projects that do not seem to be interested in any of that. My comment was about what i ask for to exist, not what i ask for from someone or some specific project. Also > This is an entirely separate problem of which there are multiple solutions to. Let's not get into this though, take it one step at a time. This isn't a separate problem, it is a problem that exists because libraries do not have stable ABIs and programs cannot rely on libraries that are on the system to provide fundamental functionality that wont break (or even wont disappear) in a couple of years (or whatever other short timespan). There is this great commentary by Linus from almost a decade ago... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl1B7nB9Kc ...where he went into the issues and yet they are still there because instead of trying to fix the problem at the core (which is what he explicitly mentions about ABI stability, like it is done in the Linux kernel - BTW this also would be a good example), the developers who work on these projects instead decided that the best solution isn't to decide and stick with a stable ABI but instead provide a standardized form of the "bundle your own libraries" approach - which barely solves anything related to not having stable ABIs. |