It'd make quite a few things so much easier if Apple just switched to ELF. At the cost of being a giant break :/
pjmlp [3 hidden]5 mins ago
There are other UNIXes that aren't ELF, e.g. AIX.
eqvinox [3 hidden]5 mins ago
That's a true statement, but what's the argument?
DannyBee [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Sure, but COFF and its variations are much less practically common in Unixes (ie ignoring PE)
In any case, it’s highly doubtful being different from ELF is offering real value to anyone at this point, it’s just nobody wants to spend time, money, etc to migrate when incremental change to their own formats gets most of what they want.
Though it is probably accurate to say apple probably has it the worst here. Mach-O tooling is almost certainly the least available out of ELF, COFF, and Mach-O.
skissane [3 hidden]5 mins ago
I honestly think Mach-O is more elegant than ELF, with its structure of load commands.
Of course, ELF still wins by being more mainstream, and not being de facto under the control of a single vendor.
eqvinox [3 hidden]5 mins ago
> I honestly think Mach-O is more elegant than ELF, with its structure of load commands.
Can you elaborate on that, especially contrasting with ELF's PT_LOAD program headers?
HN.zip
In any case, it’s highly doubtful being different from ELF is offering real value to anyone at this point, it’s just nobody wants to spend time, money, etc to migrate when incremental change to their own formats gets most of what they want.
Though it is probably accurate to say apple probably has it the worst here. Mach-O tooling is almost certainly the least available out of ELF, COFF, and Mach-O.
Of course, ELF still wins by being more mainstream, and not being de facto under the control of a single vendor.
Can you elaborate on that, especially contrasting with ELF's PT_LOAD program headers?