Date: Mon, 5 Dec 94 11:41:23 -0500
From: dj AT stealth DOT ctron DOT com (DJ Delorie)
To: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: object change FAQ


Based on what I've heard, with switching to ELF, along with all the
other things V2 is doing, we might as well consider V2 to be a whole
new animal rather than an upgrade of V1.  This is an ideal time for
it, since you can't do these kinds of changes on a minor release
(1.11->1.12) due to backwards compatibility requirements.

Here are some comments based on all the responsed I've gotten so far:

Advantages
----------

* Linux improvements help djgpp also, and visa-versa

* Linux's gcc can compile djgpp code, and v-v.

* More flexible linking (this symbol is really this other symbol,
  unless you already have one, in which case ignore it, even if you're
  linking in the rest of the object anyway).

* Singe configure for both Linux and djgpp

* get rid of go32coff format - was different from ALL other binary
  formats (coff with prepended underscore)

Disadvantages
-------------

* emacs changes to use elf dumper

* old libraries can't be used (go32coff prepends an underscore, ELF
  does not)

* MASM can't be used to do .asm->.o

* old .s files will need to be rewritten to remove prepended
  underscore.

Caveats
-------

* Might be able to write a V1->V2 library converter that removes the
  underscores.