Re: ARM-ELF -> PE-COFF with objcopy

[Dave Korn <dave dot korn dot cygwin at googlemail dot com>]

Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 06:28:56PM +0100, Pedro Alves wrote:
>> Thanks, but no thanks.  CE runs on more platforms than just ARM.  It
>> also runs on x86, MIPS and SH.   Why go through the trouble of
>> writing an extra indirection layer when you can have the tools
>> output the native format?  What about binary tool and link
>> compatibility with the native tools?  Symbian avoids this last
>> issue, because, well, they *are* the native tools.  Are you
>> planning on making cygwin or i386-mingw use a post-linking
>> process? ;-)
> 
> FWIW, it's been suggested several times :-)
> 

  Yeah, but it doesn't make the same sense for Cygwin and MinGW, because we
are *not* the native tools; it has always been one of the GNU toolchain's
goals to support interoperation with the native tools and formats on every
supported platform.  I'm currently faced with the dilemma of how to add
support for new features that the native toolchain just won't understand, but
I'd still like to do it in as minimal a way as possible; e.g., I'd like the
native librarian and dumper tools to still work even if the linker can't
handle the objects.  Building a post-processing chain to try and support
semantics that aren't necessarily commensurable with the native format seems
troublesome to me, and I'd much rather support things in a way that if you
don't use the new features, what you get is a completely compatible object.

    cheers,
      DaveK