One method of binaries debug exists: run strace to see what files binary need. To see "underground" work of xterm run this code in terminal:
strace -e trace=file xterm
What we see! Ok, ok, I'll translate it to plain English:
/etc/ld.so.preload not found
/etc/ld.so.cache found
/lib/tls/i686/sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/lib/tls/i686/ libXft.so.2 not found
/lib/tls/ sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/lib/tls/ libXft.so.2 not found
/lib/ i686/sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/lib/ i686/ libXft.so.2 not found
/lib/ sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/lib/ libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/tls/i686/sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/tls/i686/ libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/tls/ sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/tls/ libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/ i686/sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/ i686/ libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/ sse2/libXft.so.2 not found
/usr/lib/ libXft.so.2 found
/lib/libXaw.so.7 not found
/usr/lib/libXaw.so.7 found
/lib/libncurses.so.5 found
/lib/libc.so.6 found
/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 not found
/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 found
/lib/libX11.so.6 not found
/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 found
/lib/libXmu.so.6 not found
/usr/lib/libXmu.so.6 found
/lib/libXt.so.6 not found
/usr/lib/libXt.so.6 found
/lib/libICE.so.6 not found
/usr/lib/libICE.so.6 found
/lib/libexpat.so.1 not found
/usr/lib/libexpat.so.1 found
...
Related info: my CPU is Intel Atom N270.
Our SliTaz is always i486-related.
And this listing shows that system see that I have more modern, i686-based CPU with threads support, and some things that I yet not know. And system search for some system libs that more suitable for my system.
Yes, no one of 7 "advanced" variants exists, and system falls back to existing one: i486, no threads, no joy, ... Oh.
I think this example shows that we can build optimized variants of some libs, and install them "on the fly" if user want them.
Result is more productive work of SliTaz distribution, isn't it?
Who want small SliTaz get it, and who want more special one will can download packages.
But there are bunch of question. Which libraries? Which packages? How to write receipts for them?