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Re: backward/forward compatibility of binutils


Mikhail Teterin <mi+kde@aldan.algebra.com> writes:

> Unfortunately, GNU toolchains and debuggers are like that, because keeping API 
> compatibility is judged as "too much effort" by binutils developers...

Would it be possible to implement BFD backward compatibility?  Yes.

Would it be hard?  Yes.  It is much harder than you think.  Analogies
to libraries like PNG are meaningless, because those libraries were
designed to be libraries, with a clearly defined API, to be used by
arbitrary third-party programs.  BFD was not designed to be a library;
it was designed to be a place to put the common routines shared by
GDB, gas, and the binutils.  It never intended to be used by
third-party programs (although, yes, a few people have managed it over
the years).

If you want to make it happen, then lay out a plan for how to get from
here to there, get buyin from the binutils developers, and then
implement it.

Don't expect it to happen by asking on this mailing list.  It will not
solve any problem faced by the binutils developers.  Instead, it will
require a great deal of extra work.  So just asking us to implement it
will accomplish nothing.

Ian


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