I am currently using gcc 2.6.2 and binutils 2.5.2, configured to
product ELF binaries.   I'm going to set the kernel up so that it can
handle either ELF, 4.4bsd a.out and NetBSD a.out binaries.
Basically, the idea is to be as permissive as possible with toolchain
choices.

However, once I have released a set of patches for 2.6.2/2.5.2, I'm
going to recommend using the ELF format.  There's theoretically
support on the GNU toolchain for dynamic linking with ELF, GP-relative
addressing and MIPS debugging.  None of these are even theoretically
supported with the a.out format, although Ralph Campbell does have
changes to support GP-relative addressing which may be integrated into
the GNU sources at some point.

Unfortunately, nobody's stepped forward to try to support MIPS on the
existing NetBSD toolchain (it's a very big task), so we can't
realistically expect to use that in the near future.

Anyway, I'm going to try to get changes out to support what I've
described above by the end of next weekend.   I'm sorry that it can't
be sooner, but I'm trying to be realistically optimistic, rather than
insanely optimistic.

			       _MelloN_
--
Ted Lemon							 mellon@vix.com
+1 415 477 5045

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