The .obj file, what is it?

[I Lindström via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Wednesday, 3 May 2017 at 11:09:33 UTC, Stanislav Blinov wrote:
>
> The source is not compiled into the executable. The source is 
> compiled into a "object code", output into an "object file" - 
> in this case, the .obj file. Afterwards, object files are 
> linked by a linker (usually also taking other object files 
> and/or libraries) to produce an executable or a library.
> .obj files are not needed to be redistributed, they've served 
> their purpose when the final target executable or library has 
> been created. But it's useful to keep them in the development 
> environment, as usually the build environment would not spend 
> time recompiling the code when an up-to-date object files are 
> present.

Ohhhhhhhh... Many thanks. This cleared it for me. What happens at 
compile time is all magic to me still, but learning as I go.