On Sunday 19 May 2002 23:19, Emond Papegaaij wrote:
> Prelink is the 'true' solution for the relocation problem.  [...]

Well, I have started to learn programming on a Windows platform (I apalog=
ize)=20
;-)... From there, I have some basic knowledge about (at least, Microsoft=
's)=20
executeable formats and what linking and relocating means. I do know that=
=20
Windows' and Unix's VMs and default/standard executeable file formats (PE=
 vs.=20
ELF) are quite different, but I have no idea of what could be so time-tak=
ing=20
on doing the final link stages when an executeable gets loaded into memor=
y.

I am aware of the most basic structure of a Microsoft PE executeable (tha=
t is=20
a Win32 app when being a .EXE). This format is rather simple and quite ne=
ar=20
to what is being in memory when the executeable runs - no time-stealing=20
linking before loading. At least, it allows some OS/loader hooks which ma=
kes=20
exe loading much much faster than everything I've seen with Linux/KDE.

I do appreciate ELF being a portable and quite flexible object format, bu=
t=20
maybe it has to be considered bad and insuitable due to some circumstance=
s,=20
at least some which were already mentioned in this thread. As no alternat=
ives=20
are available, we should probably think forward and discuss new ideas. Li=
nux=20
gives us the freedom to implement new ideas rather easily, so what would =
it=20
take to create a new "binary format interpreter cut to suit the needs of =
KDE=20
and a bunch of other modern apps"?

Stephan