Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 20:45:04 -0500 (EST) From: Hasdi R Hashim To: Malcolm Taylor cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: Wanted DLL File format In-Reply-To: <199611302351.MAA26788@papaioea.manawatu.gen.nz> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-no-archive: yes On Sun, 1 Dec 1996, Malcolm Taylor wrote: > > On Wed, 27 Nov 1996 07:02:14 GMT, I wrote: > > For starters, LE file format (Win3.1 and OS/2 .EXE file format) is very > > much the same with LX file format (.DLL) except that it has the LX > > signature and has initialization and termination code inside. You can get > > LE file format from http://www.wotsit.demon.co.uk/ > > Isn't the Win3.x executable format the NE format (ie New Executable)? > If you are talking of modern formats (ie Win32 formats) then both the > DLL and EXE formats are PE/COFF, not LE/LX or NE. You got a point there. In microsoft homepages, the one about PE file format (http://www.microsoft.com/win32dev/base/pefile.htm), it mentions that >>>>>> WINNT.H #define IMAGE_DOS_SIGNATURE 0x5A4D // MZ #define IMAGE_OS2_SIGNATURE 0x454E // NE #define IMAGE_OS2_SIGNATURE_LE 0x454C // LE #define IMAGE_NT_SIGNATURE 0x00004550 // PE00 At first it seems curious that Windows executable file types do not appear on this list. But then, after a little investigation, the reason becomes clear: There really is no difference between Windows executables and OS/2 executables other than the operating system version specification. Both operating systems share the same executable file structure. >>>>> No I don't think microsoft minds for this little snippet. Hopefully, the no-archive X-tag works. I skimmed through the book but so far no mention of NE. Anyways in the Wotsit file format collection, there's one: http://www.wotsit.demon.co.uk/formats/exe/neexe.txt Interestingly enough: >>>> 0000h 2 char ID='NE' ... 000Dh 1 byte Application flags, bitmapped ... 7 - DLL or driver (SS:SP info invalid, CS:IP points at FAR init routine called with ... >>>> For djgpp purposes, I think it is best they go for PE file format for .DLL and file executables. Personally I prefer ELF than COFF but since microsoft "opened" themselves to an object file used by extensively by the GNU community (at least used to), we might as well take advantage of it. Regards Hasdi