Date: Fri, 5 Aug 94 09:27:00 -0400
From: dj AT ctron DOT com (DJ Delorie)
To: chan1355 AT cs DOT cuhk DOT hk
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Re: a.out and COFF format

> What is the difference between a.out format and COFF format?  I know
> that older versions of djgpp produce a.out format while newer versions
> use COFF.  But what exactly is the difference?  I know what the COFF
> format is, but no idea on a.out format.

The important difference, as far as go32 is concerned, is that COFF
includes information about where to put the sections.  A.out required
that the OS (go32 in this case) make assumptions about the locations.
This assumption forced you to use at least 5M of DPMI memory for the
smallest programs.