To avoid some linking errors

[Walter Bright]

On 10/29/2012 4:37 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:> On 10/29/12 6:13 PM, Walter 
Bright wrote:
 >> On 10/29/2012 3:11 PM, Brad Roberts wrote:
 >>> It's friction. It needs to be reduced.
 >>
 >> Short of building the linking code into dmd, the options are fairly
 >> limited.
 >
 > Why can't the linking code be built into dmd? I am baffled :o).

No need for :o), it's a fair question.

The linking process itself is pretty simple. The problems come from designers 
who can't resist making things as complicated as possible. Just look at the 
switches for the various linkers, and what they purport to do. Then, look at all 
the complicated file formats it deals with:

res files
def files
linker script files
dwarf
codeview
magic undocumented formats
pe files
shared libraries
eh formats

And that's just the start.