Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!STONY-BROOK.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM!jrd
From: jrd@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (John R. Dunning)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Relocatable Object Code Format
Message-ID: <19880828160154.2.JRD@MOA.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>
Date: 28 Aug 88 16:01:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 39


    Date: Thu, 25 Aug 88 22:30:49 EDT
    From: jhs@mitre-bedford.ARPA

    Yes, I think it IS John Dunning who is hoping to "whomp up" a relocatable
    format and linking loader.

Yup, that's me.  I've heard of other relocatable object formats, but
have never succeeded in getting hold of specs on any of them, and don't
know of anyone else who claims to be working on them.

    In my opinion, it is PRECISELY BECAUSE the 6502 has very poor support for
    relocatability that a relocatable object code format and a linking, relocating
    loader ARE NEEDED.

Precisely.  If it was easy to get that functionality, nobody would be
worried about it.

    With such facilities, code can be relocated to the absolute load addresses
    during the linkage process, all under the automatic control of the linker.
    Linking will require a little computation, and the relocatable format will be
    a little more "bulky" than the final, absolute load modules that result.
    However, once such machinery is in hand, it will become practical to build
    REAL languages for the 8-bitters.  

Yup, that's my thinking exactly.
				       Heck, even a version of ACTION! with the
    capability of building relocatable object libraries would be a terrific
    advance!  For that matter, relocatable assembly language libraries would be
    pretty neat too.

Yup.  In other mail I mentioned my plan to build a linker for the object
format I'm working on.  The obvious extension is to arrange it so that
it can extract modules from libraries, and I've left room in my format
definitions for that sort of thing.

    I'd be interested in reading a "product review" of ICD's format.

Me too.