From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu May  8 15:13:46 1997
Return-Path: <owner-hackers>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id PAA22834
          for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 8 May 1997 15:13:46 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from rover.village.org (rover.village.org [204.144.255.49])
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id PAA22829
          for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Thu, 8 May 1997 15:13:44 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from rover.village.org [127.0.0.1] 
	by rover.village.org with esmtp (Exim 1.60 #1)
	id 0wPbPv-0007Dp-00; Thu, 8 May 1997 16:12:03 -0600
To: Ben Black <black@zen.cypher.net>
Subject: Re: Alpha questions.. 
Cc: Brandon Gillespie <brandon@cold.org>, hackers@freebsd.org
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 06 May 1997 18:05:20 EDT."
		<Pine.LNX.3.91.970506180413.8866A-100000@zen.cypher.net> 
References: <Pine.LNX.3.91.970506180413.8866A-100000@zen.cypher.net>  
Date: Thu, 08 May 1997 16:12:02 -0600
From: Warner Losh <imp@village.org>
Message-Id: <E0wPbPv-0007Dp-00@rover.village.org>
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

In message <Pine.LNX.3.91.970506180413.8866A-100000@zen.cypher.net> Ben Black writes:
: this actually reminds me of something i have been wondering about: is 
: there any desire to switch from a.out to another binary format like OLF 
: that is better suited to multi-architecture use.

Yes.  Is it worth it?  I can't answer.  However, the new Alpha port
will use whatever the current tools produce in a relatively bug-free
way.  I'd personally like this to be ELF, but could see it being ECOFF
if the ELF tools on the Alpha aren't up to snuff.  However, the Alpha
port is a ways away from being able to run any binaries, so there is
time for the tools question to be resolved or sort itself out before
it is an issue.

Right now FreeBSD supports ELF w/o a hitch.  People are always
more than welcome to try the experimental, but promising looking, OLF
on their own.

Warner