Subj : Re: Binary Format Descriptor To : comp.programming From : Jack Klein Date : Sat Aug 20 2005 12:17 am On 19 Aug 2005 15:43:41 -0700, "robertwessel2@yahoo.com" wrote in comp.programming: > > Jack Klein wrote: > > As for DOS, true MS-DOS that is, there were two binary executable > > formats, .com files (pure binary) and .exe, which was a version of > > OMF86. On the other hand, if by "DOS" you mean a Win32 console > > application, that is Microsoft's version of COFF as well. There is > > just a flag set by the linker to tell the OS to run it in the console > > subsystem. > > > Actually it's .obj files that are/were a variant of OMF. 32 bit .obj > files can be either OMF or COFF (the linker will convert an OMF file, > but COFF is far more common). I don't know if the MZ .exe format was > derived from anything in particular, it's pretty basic. You're absolutely correct about .obj and .exe in MS-DOS. Thanks for catching my blunder. -- Jack Klein Home: http://JK-Technology.Com FAQs for comp.lang.c http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html comp.lang.c++ http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/ alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ajo/docs/FAQ-acllc.html .