🚀 go-pugleaf

   Date: 17 Feb 91 18:38:49 GMT
   From: boot@donald.osf.org (Bruce Bauman)

   As far as the GNU stuff goes, I think the tools are moving towards
   object file independence via a "binary file descriptor" (BFD)
   interface.  Someone more knowledgeable can correct me if I'm wrong,
   but I think the soon-to-be-released version of gdb (4.0) will use this
   interface. I'm not sure about gas-1.39, or about other tools such as
   binutils.

   Anyone who knows more care to comment?

I suppose I know more since I designed bfd.  Yes, gdb 4.0 uses bfd,
all the binutils (except gas currently) use bfd.

We currently have SunOS a.out, COFF, and b.out (a modified a.out)
supported.  Other ones are on the way.  Specifically NeXT Mach-O and
BSD a.out will need to be supported before it can be considered
"releasable" in order to continue supporting at least the folks
currently supported.

I don't know how many people besides me care about the ability to,
say, run nm on a directory full of coff, sunos, and b.out binaries at
once, but having BFD does make porting the tool chain a lot simpler.

As for Mach-O, the name means about as much as COFF, since everybody
adapted it to their needs.  Perhaps ELF is powerful enough to be used
by the GNU os.  a.out really isn't.