Message-Id: <199605200721.DAA24125@delorie.com>
Date:         Mon, 20 May 96 09:53:41 LIT
From: Martynas Kunigelis <martynas DOT kunigelis AT VM DOT KTU DOT LT>
Subject:      Win32 COFF
To: malcolm AT manawatu DOT gen DOT nz, DJGPP mailing list <djgpp AT delorie DOT com>
In-Reply-To:  Your message of Sat, 18 May 1996 01:53:36 GMT


Is Win32 object file format (COFF I assume) compatible with DJGPP .o format?
Because if it is not, I see no reason why not have ELF-based Win32 support.
Because a new linker would be necessary anyway, why not write a linker
producing PE/COFF executables/dlls out of ELF object files? Plus AFAIK ELF
does not necessarily imply PIC, only shared libraries are the case. Anyway,
I am not sure what advantages ELF has over COFF, but if it has some, I think
it is possible to have Win32 and ELF friendly. AFAIK ELF is exclusively
designed for Intel CPUs, also someone said debug info is more flexible. Also
we have its complete specification. I do understand the COFF structure by now,
but for future maintenance, better documented and advanced format would be
better I think.
  Malcolm, could you tell if I'm right or wrong about ELF->PE/COFF linker?
Thanks to everyone.

Martynas