"a.out"

[Bill Hogan <bhogan@rahul.net>]

   This morning I read something that made me realize I have been
using the term "a.out" where I should have been using the term "COFF".

   According to "The Magic Garden Explained" [GoodHeart and Cox,
Prentice-Hall, 1994] the terms "Extensible Library Format" (ELF) and
"Common Object Format" ("COFF") are different ways of _organizing_ the
information in a.out files.

	pre-SVR4 => COFF (ELF did not exist?)

	SVR4+ => ELF is default but COFF still supported

   I still have the impression that "executable binary" is an
acceptable substitute for "a.out" when the context is clear.


   Bill