X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to djgpp-bounces using -f From: Charles Sandmann Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: COFF Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 23:33:21 CDT Organization: Rice University, Houston, TX Lines: 16 Message-ID: <3f94b711.sandmann@clio.rice.edu> References: <3f94afac_2 AT corp DOT newsgroups DOT com> NNTP-Posting-Host: clio.rice.edu X-Trace: joe.rice.edu 1066711404 14268 128.42.105.3 (21 Oct 2003 04:43:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse AT rice DOT edu NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 04:43:24 +0000 (UTC) X-NewsEditor: ED-1.5.9 To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com > > DJGPP does not support ELF, so the question is moot here. > > DJ you designed the compiler, assembler and linker I assume. Why did you > chose COFF? COFF was chosen for DJGPP V1.10 to replace the A.OUT format (which required a sparse memory layout which wasted memory when running under DPMI). This was around 1992 if I remember correctly, and COFF was was the best choice at that point. COFF was retained when V2.x started development (first for compatibility with all tools, and then hoping to be able to eventually use some Win32 tools, since it uses COFF). It hasn't changed since then, and is unlikely to because of the massive amount of development effort which would be required. No one has volunteered to do it.