Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 19:29:33 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199805212329.TAA22346@delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: andrewc AT rosemail DOT rose DOT hp DOT com
CC: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <002201bd8446$d48ab840$45111d0f@ros51675cra.rose.hp.com>
	(andrewc AT rosemail DOT rose DOT hp DOT com)
Subject: underscores: a.out vs coff vs elf vs gcc vs as vs ld
Precedence: bulk


OK, here's the history.  DJGPP uses underscores because a.out used
underscores by default.  When we migrated to COFF around v1.10, we
reconfigured gcc and binutils to retain the underscores (for
compatibility), even though COFF by default did NOT use underscores.
ELF also does not use underscores.

This, of course, means that we need to do more work on each port of
gcc and binutils to make sure they all realize about the underscores.
This also affects the type of "local label" used and other things.

If we do go through the hell of converting object formats again, we're
dumping the underscores.  It will be slightly worse during the
conversion, but it will be better in the long run, especially if we
can be 100% compatible with Linux's ELF format.