>I'd hate to see NetBSD suddenly turn into SVR4 overnight.  If we can
>tweak ELF to work as we need it, great, but we should look at the
>ramifications of doing so before we even try.

It is not my intent to convert NetBSD to another SVR4 clone, period.  Some of
our platforms depend on ELF. a.out just won't cut the mustard.  Multiple OMF
support is tough.  The system interfaces for a.out, ECOFF, ELF are radically
different. Plus, ELF would help our GPL'd stuff stay current.

>For example, why don't you go ahead and tweak the entire SPARC or Sun3 port
>to use ELF.  Including the boot program.  I don't think you'll be
>able to boot your machine after that, since the PROMs depend on an a.out
>header.  One could argue that this was not a bright move either, but hey...

Try a intermediary a.out boot loader.  Gee, I thought a clean toolchain was a
bright idea.

>Funny how an "ancient standard" suddenly gets renamed a "hack". 

Standard, ya right.  a.out is a standard. BSD a.out with piggybacked resolver
stuff for DLLs is far from that standard.

>I guess my overall concern is that I'd hate to see NetBSD become a dumping
>ground.

I hope we can have some honest input on the merits of the various OMF foramts.
How do we handle the different sytem interfaces cleanly?

erik