ECOFF really isn't a bad executable format.

For one thing, unlike many other -- ELF in particular -- it actually has an
OS type field, in addition to a machine-type field.  Since I now have to
deal with *three* different OS flavors of ELF on the i386, two of which don't
use any sensible method at all for indicating that their binaries use their
particular ABI and one of which uses a method that even its own variant of
'file' can't distinguish (but, thankfully, its kernel can), it's hard for me
to see ELF as a good choice.

Can someone actually enumerate some good reasons for using ELF rather than
ECOFF, our own extended a.out, or, say, OSF/ROSE?  Each has some drawbacks,
but none seemingly so severe as ELF's lack of an OS-type header field.

Thor