25 Feb
2023
25 Feb
'23
8:07 a.m.
On Thu, 23 Feb 2023, Paul Winalski wrote:
a.out was, as object file formats go, a throwback to
the stone age from
the get-go. Even the most primitive of IBM's link editors for
System/360 supported arbitrary naming of object file sections and the
ability for the programmer to arrange them in whatever order they
wished. a.out's restriction to three sections (.text, .data, .bss) did
manage to get the job done, and even (with ZMAGIC) could support
demand-paged virtual memory, but only just.
That may be so, but those guys didn't exactly have the resources of
IBM behind them...
And I wonder how many people here know the significance of the "407" magic
number?
-- Dave