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To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>,
        FreeBSD Hackers <hackers@freeBSD.org>
Subject: Re: ELF cutover (was :Re: [Fwd: Re: Please Help Me Understand dlopen()]) 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 21 Aug 1997 16:09:21 +0930."
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Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 16:24:35 +0930
From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
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> >
> > You should spend some time reading back-issued of the hackers
> > digest.
> 
> Right, I *should*.  I'm running as fast as I can just to stay where I
> am.

Under the circumstances, perhaps a slightly less vehement denunciation 
of the concept might be indicated then?  I'd always be happy to 
summarise the discussion to date if you wanted to drop me a line.

> > Can you honestly imagine any such an idea gaining any sort of currency
> > without this basic criterion being met?
> 
> No.  Well, yes, but it would surprise me.

You have little faith in the conservatism of others 8)

> > The entire idea with building mixed-flavour tools is to be able to avoid
> > a one-hit cutover; you should be able to work with a mixture of a.out
> > and ELF tools transparently.
> 
> OK.  That's just what I originally thought.  But Jordan's message
> suggested that I should cut over in one swell foop.

Jordan is looking for developers willing to test the cutover and 
eradicate problems.  At some stage, a 'make world' or (more likely) an /
etc/make.conf update will have you suddenly generating ELF objects by 
default, once it's clear it works.  Until then, sleep easy 8)

mike