From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Aug 9 04:50:54 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id EAA03707 for hackers-outgoing; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 04:50:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: from lobster.wellfleet.com (lobster.corpeast.baynetworks.com [192.32.253.3]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id EAA03701 for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 04:50:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from pobox.BayNetworks.com by lobster.wellfleet.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-4.1) id HAA27370; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 07:46:17 -0400 Received: from tuva.engeast.baynetworks.com by pobox.BayNetworks.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA04647; Fri, 9 Aug 96 07:43:17 EDT Received: from tuva.engeast.baynetworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by tuva.engeast.baynetworks.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id HAA09783; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 07:43:15 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199608091143.HAA09783@tuva.engeast.baynetworks.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 1.6.7 5/3/96 To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Cc: "Hr.Ladavac" , markd@Grizzly.COM (Mark Diekhans), hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What are the plans for ELF support? In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 09 Aug 1996 01:30:12 PDT." <28158.839579412@time.cdrom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 09 Aug 1996 07:43:15 -0400 From: Robert Withrow Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk jkh@time.cdrom.com said: :- we'll only switch to ELF if and when it demonstrates a set of :- advantages which outweigh the disadvantages of changing. 1) Ability to build and use new GCC and BINUTILS distributions ``out of the box''. 2) Ability to use the various BINUTILS tools for which there are no a.out equivalents (like objdump). 3) Ability to use site-written and commercial applications that are designed around elf (of which we have many). 4) Ability to natively use elf for other purposes (like i18n), in ways that a.out are not as well suited. 5) Increased ease of developing multi-platform support. -- Robert Withrow -- (+1 508 436 8256) BWithrow@BayNetworks.com