65520 - Inconsistent library names between platforms

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: Build Config, defect)

Description

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

I'm going through and fixing up OS/2 DLL names and I found some weird stuff on 
Windows and *IX.

Note that Windows does not require 8.3 DLL names, but it appears that in the 
past an effort was made to keep them 8.3

On Windows, the layout DLL is gkhtml, on *IX it is gklayout. Since gklayout is 8 
chars, it should work fine for Windows as well.

On Windows, the html parser is gkparser, on *IX it is htmlparser. Not sure what 
to do with this one, but I think they should be close :)

On Windows, webshell is gkweb, on *IX it is webshell. Again, webshell is 8 chars 
so it would work for Windows.

On Windows, platform widgets are in gkwidget - on *IX, it depends on the 
platform and looks like this - wdgt$(MOZ_WIDGET_TOOLKIT). Shouldn't we have some 
consistency here?

On Windows, xpconnect is xpc$(MOZ_BITS)$(VERSION), on *IX it is xpconnect.

I'll put others as I find them.

Comment 1

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

If there isn't an 8.3 restriction on what the libraries can be called, it's 
better if the names use title case and whole words -- e.g. `Layout Library', 
`HTML Parser', and `XP Connect', rather than `layout.shlb', `htmlparser.shlb', 
and `xpconnect.shlb'.

There are two reasons for this. First, someone browsing through their Mozilla 
Folder will be more reassured that these files have a legitimate reason to 
exist, if they have understandable names. Second, the names appear in the 
splash screen during the boot process, so it looks considerably more 
professional if they aren't weird mashofwords.shlb incantations.

Comment 2

[cls]

Ok, wait a minute.  *who* requires 8.3 filenames?  I thought it was either
win32, os/2 or mac.  If no one requires 8.3 filenames, then we can get rid of
the SHORT_LIBNAME mess and use the same names across the board, right?

mpt, I'm not concerned about end users looking through their mozilla folder and
understanding what libraries they are looking at.  I'm concerned with developers
being able to identify libraries based upon names that they are already familiar
with from the other platforms.  And if someone does switch to the verbose naming
scheme, I hope that they don't use spaces in the filenames.  We already have a
problem with that (bug 57387)

Comment 3

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

OS/2 does have an 8.3 restriction in the loader, so we have to have 
SHORT_LIBNAME.

I opened this bug more about the inconsistencies between unix and windows.

It makes it really difficult to try to match shared libs/DLLs one to one.

It would be nice if there were consistencies.

For OS/2, we just make up nice little 8.3 names.

It appears that at some point in time, 8.3 was the standard for Windows as 
well, but that seems to have gone away.

Comment 4

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

> mpt, I'm not concerned about end users looking through their mozilla folder and
> understanding what libraries they are looking at.

Well, you could have a text file somewhere listing library filenames and their
corresponding human-readable names, and then read from that file when you want
to display human-readable names on the splash screen ... But that seems like
rather a roundabout way of doing it. :-)

Comment 5

[hacker formerly known as [e-mail]]

Attachment: List of unix & win32 name discrepancies

List reads: path :: unix-name :: win32-name

Comment 6

[hacker formerly known as [e-mail]]

I think there's too much historical baggage to ever sync the names but leaving
the bug open just so that I can be proved wrong in the Future.

Comment 7

[cls]

Mass reassign to default build config owner

Comment 8

[(default assignee for unassigned bugs. does not receive bugmail)]

Mass reassign of Build/Config bugs to Leaf.

Comment 9

[Chase Phillips]

Mass reassign of open bugs for [e-mail] to [e-mail].