Xref: news2.mv.net comp.os.msdos.djgpp:3981
From: malcolm AT manawatu DOT gen DOT nz (Malcolm Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: ELF wanted
Date: Sat, 18 May 1996 01:53:36 GMT
Organization: Grafik Software
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References: <199605141635 DOT UAA05437 AT video DOT yars DOT free DOT net>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

"Alexander V. Lukyanov" <lav AT video DOT yars DOT free DOT net> wrote:
>Since DJGPP is supposed to run under plain DOS, how will win32 be
>suitable for it? djgpp dll could be just _compatible_ with win32, imho.

The point is that coff has no support (in the form that djgpp uses)
for dynamic linking. The PE/COFF has a standard method for this and
contains the appropriate structures, hence to create a dll for dos use
you would be able to just write a loader that loaded PE/COFF images
and did the dynamic linking.
As for compatibility, you can get many dlls for windows that do not
make any calls to the Win32 api (such as compression dlls etc.) and
one can also stick a class or class library in a dll. These can then
be shared between Win32 programs and DOS programs.
However the main point here is that the development of Win32
compatibility would open the way for a simple and effective dll under
DOS.
There are also many other advantages (compatibility with code
generated by other compilers, third party dlls...).

Malcolm