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SubjectRe: Boot code rewritten for GAS
H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> I'd say you guessed why this keeps getting ignored. (I have
binutils
>> 2.8.1.0.1 right now.) You could submit the patch again in a few
years.
>>
>> Another reason: People who can write 16-bit x86 assembly are likely
>> to
>> be ex-DOS hackers with MASM and TASM experience. To them, gas
>> syntax
>> may be hard to use.
>
>Indeed. NASM would be a better choice than either gas or as86.

The big problem I have with NASM is the license, if it hasn't been
updated lately there is still a problem with it being shipped with a
distribution such as RedHat:

Charging a fee for the Software is prohibited, although a fee
may be charged for the act of transferring a copy, and you can
offer warranty protection and charge a fee for that.

Other than that, for me the as86/ld86 combo works and the code is
almost never changed, adding a dependency on a new tool (i.e. NASM or
a newer binutils) seems like a lot of trouble for almost no gain.

BTW, yes, I have been hacking the as86 sources, porting the Linux-2.0
kernel to an embedded 486 so I am aware that the as86 code is kind
of brittle and the error/warning messages leave a _lot_ to be desired,
but still, it's such a small amount of code that I can live with it.

/Christer

--
Christer Weinigel Cendio Systems AB
Email: wingel@cendio.se Teknikringen 8
Phone: +46-13-21 46 00 583 30 Linköping
Fax: +46-13-21 47 00 Sweden
[please note that Signum Support has changed its name to Cendio Systems]

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