rfg@NCD.COM (Ron Guilmette) (01/20/91)
In article <5291@auspex.auspex.com> guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes: >>I believe that's what Sun and AT&T thought, but I can imagine >>existing COFF-producing retargetable code generators and other such >>tools which could be ported to SPARC much more easily if the supplier >>did not have to change object formats at the same time. > >That's one nice thing about having your compilers generate assembler >code rather than object code - they don't have to know quite so much >about object-file formats, because they leave that knowledge up to the >assembler.... Yes, but unfortunately they *do* still have to know quite a bit about the type of *debugging information* required by the target system. For example, on V.4, your compilers don't have to be terribly ELF-smart but it does help if they are DWARF-smart. Making them so can be quite time consuming. Take it from me. -- // Ron Guilmette - C++ Entomologist // Internet: rfg@ncd.com uucp: ...uunet!lupine!rfg // Motto: If it sticks, force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.