Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 09:47:31 +0300 (IDT)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: Peter Zijlstra <peter AT mcs DOT nl>
cc: DJGPP mailing list <djgpp AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: Re: Why COFF ??
In-Reply-To: <3394831D.2A5@mcs.nl>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.970604094652.2271E-100000@is>
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On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Peter Zijlstra wrote:

> Why does the DJGPP port of GNU CC use the COFF object format ?

The reason for this is mostly historical: the way that DJGPP started
(from a hacked Unix libc that used COFF) and evolved, it was easier to
keep compatibility between old and new tools by using the same object
file format.

> Is it possible to use like say the .out format linux uses, with GDB.
> Because I get the shits of not being able to trace into my .h files
> :(

The relative merits of going to ELF were discussed and beaten to death
here; you might search the DJGPP mail archives for `ELF' to see some
of these discussions.  At least my impression is that the advantages
don't overwhelm the disadvantages.

> Hope someone knows how to solve this problem...

As everything else in DJGPP, it takes a motivated individual that's
ready to sit down and write and debug some real code, to change
something as central as object code format (it involves reconfiguring
and rebuilding all of the Binutils).