>>>>> Brian May writes: BM> What does ABI stand for/mean?
Application Binary Interface. An API is the Application Programming Interface. Here are two code snippets with the same API, but different ABIs: int bar (void); #define foo bar and: int foo (void); The programmer just calls `foo ()', but the binary contains references either to foo or bar. That results in more than one ABI, and it means that the binaries are incompatible. On the other hand: int bar (void); int foo (void); /* Compatibility stub. */ #define foo bar has an ABI that is a superset of the other examples. So, binaries compiled with the first two examples will be compatible with ones compiled with the third examples. ABIs only matter when you have dynamic linkage. It is my intent to help the Hurd and Linux be mostly binary-compatible with one another. Then, there would be a separate `libhurd' or `liblinux' that would contain the ABI-incompatible parts. If programs depended on either of those libraries, they could not be shared, but the rest would be portable between ABIs. -- Gordon Matzigkeit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/) Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
