Message-Id: <36B9F04B.C62DF239@cableol.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 19:08:59 +0000
From: Allens <allen DOT asjp AT cableol DOT co DOT uk>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: COFF Format (was Re: performance)
References: <199902011747 DOT SAA11228 AT acp3bf DOT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de> <3 DOT 0 DOT 6 DOT 32 DOT 19990202115636 DOT 00849100 AT pop DOT netaddress DOT com> <199902022104 DOT QAA08963 AT envy DOT delorie DOT com> <7981jv$295$1 AT nnrp1 DOT dejanews DOT com>
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Bruce Dawson wrote:
> 
> In article <199902022104 DOT QAA08963 AT envy DOT delorie DOT com>,
>   djgpp AT delorie DOT com wrote:
> >
> > > C'mon guys. COFF is as obsolete as DJGPP 1.x. It's time to move on and use
> > > an executable format worthy of the new millennium, or at least of the
> > > 1990s. :-)
> >
> > Unfortunately, switching from COFF to anything else is harder than
> > you'd expect, just because of the many places where COFF is assumed.
> 
> It would also simplify a lot of things, at least if you switched to PE
> format. There are literally hundreds of FREE PE format utilities, including
> dozens written by Matt Pietrek for MSJ, that would open up new debugging,
> error checking, profiling and other possibilities.
> 
> As one extravagant example, note that WinDbg, a decent source level
> debugger with a graphical user interface, is available for free. Therefore
> a switch to PE format would mean you could use a much easier to use
> debugger, and you wouldn't have to port rhgdb, etc.
> 
> Presumably supporting COFF and PE simultaneously would be a hassle, but
> not supporting PE is a great limitation on Win32.
> 
Very easy, as a lot of coff is inbeded in the pe format.  Infact, RSXNTDJ and
pebind by doug gale ( to be released sometime soonish) can both create pe 
executables, so in that sense djgpp can already use that stuff. It is a problem
with using it though that it can only be run from windoze, and half the thing
about
djgpp (for me anyway) is that it is a dos compiler so I don't need to start
windoze 
or download wine.

			Peter Allen