undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjstummbillig2mo ago0 comments

> But there were benefits to knowing as, ld and ar, and there still are today.

This is trivially true. The constraint for anything you do in your life is time it takes to know something.

So the far more interesting question is: At what level do you want to solve problems – and is it likely that you need knowledge of as, ld and ar over anything else, that you could learn instead?

0 comments

wizzwizz42mo ago

Knowledge of as, ld, ar, cc, etc is only needed when setting up (or modifying) your build toolchain, and in practice you can just copy-paste the build script from some other, similar project. Knowledge of these tools has never been needed.

fn-mote2mo ago

Knowledge of cc has never been needed? What an optimist! You must never have had headers installed in a place where the compiler (or Makefile author) didn’t expect them. Same problems with the libraries. Worse when the routine you needed to link was in a different library (maybe an arch-specific optimized lib).

That post is only true in the most vacuous sense.

“A similar project” discovered where, on BITNET?

wizzwizz42mo ago

The library problems you described are nothing that can't be solved using symlinks. A bad solution? Sure, but it works, and doesn't require me to understand cc. (Though when I needed to solve this problem, it only took me about 15 minutes and a man page to learn how to do it. `gcc -v --help` is, however, unhelpful.)

"A similar project" as in: this isn't the first piece of software ever written, and many previous examples can be found on the computer you're currently using. Skim through them until you find one with a source file structure you like, then ruthlessly cannibalise its build script.

saagarjha2mo ago

I feel like this really just says your tools are bad and leaky?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsjstummbillig2mo ago0 comments

> But there were benefits to knowing as, ld and ar, and there still are today.

This is trivially true. The constraint for anything you do in your life is time it takes to know something.

So the far more interesting question is: At what level do you want to solve problems – and is it likely that you need knowledge of as, ld and ar over anything else, that you could learn instead?

0 comments

wizzwizz42mo ago

fn-mote2mo ago

That post is only true in the most vacuous sense.

“A similar project” discovered where, on BITNET?

wizzwizz42mo ago

saagarjha2mo ago

I feel like this really just says your tools are bad and leaky?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse