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a.out for msdos (Announce)

posted by Rugxulo Homepage, Usono, 25.09.2023, 00:50

> You should look into gcc-ia16; the related binutils-ia16 has an
> as binary capable of producing 8086 code and a ld
> capable of linking together both tiny-model (.COM) and small-model (.EXE)
> executables. The gcc-ia16 port from tkchia has some weak support for medium
> model, with no apparent changes in the linker code for it, so perhaps
> assembly language programs can already use medium, large, and huge with it.

I think his real motivation is moreso "only public domain" and PDOS/PDPCLIB. But I think he uses GCC 3.2 somewhere (MVS?). (To be honest, I don't know all of the details.) I'm just saying, suggesting that he lean more heavily on GCC 6.3.0 and its associated GPLv3 ELF tools is probably not going to happen. (At least, that's what T.K. Chia's i16gcc packages use, IIRC.) I suggested SmallerC [BSD] once, but he didn't seem too interested. That (also) uses ELF. IIRC, it's a GNU extension to the ELF format to allow 16-bit relocations. (SmallerC still uses an external assembler, e.g. NASM, but 16-bit huge model .EXEs are not supported by FASM / n2f due to this, only 32-bit pmode .EXEs.) He seemed uninterested in NASM [BSD] either.

a.out predates COFF. In fact, DJGPP used to use a.out before switching to COFF. OS/2's EMX (mostly?) used a.out also, IIRC.

You can already use any GAS and LD (with linker script) to output a 16-bit .COM file, not just the ones from IA-16 ELF GCC. Martin Stromberg provided a linker script to DJGPP years ago to do so, probably based upon his XMS drivers (which used GAS). AFAIK, there has been a long-standing bug in LD where that linker script won't work (anymore) with .intel_syntax, but it still works with default AT&T syntax. (Yes, I've tested this a little recently.) Maybe you meant the linker was more interesting to him for .EXE, but there are various other 16-bit linkers out in the wild.

 

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