Shared Library Objectives (Was: Shared Lib Question (ISC))

[Guy Harris]

>One you haven't mention is reduction of on-disk program size. One of the
>rumours I've heard is that Sun introduced shared libraries to reduce the number
>of tapes needed for OS upgrades.

Rumors are always a source of entertainment.  Yes, a reduction in disk
space usage was one of the reasons for doing shared libraries in SunOS
4.x; other reasons were to allow more code sharing without having to
introduce gross hacks like "toolmerging", and to provide a general
dynamic-linking capability.