On 6 May 2011 21:19, Jon Grant <j...@jguk.org> wrote: > Hello. thank you for your reply. > > Jonathan Wakely wrote, On 05/05/11 22:47: >> >> On 5 May 2011 22:30, Jon Grant wrote: >>> >>> Hello >>> >>> Just looking at this page: >>> >>> http://gcc.gnu.org/faq.html#gas >>> >>> I saw this text "(the GNU loader)". Is this really an alternative name >>> for gas? I've not seen it called GNU loader elsewhere. I was wondering >>> if the text could just be removed. >> >> It refers to the linker, ld, not to gas, and shouldn't be removed. >> The parenthesized text represents an alternation, the paragraph should >> be read as referring to the GNU assembler or to the the GNU linker >> (aka loader). > > Not read "ld" called a "GNU loader" in binutils documentation, the common > name I have seen is "GNU linker". (I do recall "ld" is an abbreviation for > "load" though.)
It's not a term I've seen often, but I have seen it. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linker_(computing) Wikipedia says it's common on UNIX variants, and that FAQ is pretty old, so maybe it was written long ago by someone more versed in traditional unix terminology, before GNU/Linux was so prevalent. > I would propose to clarify as: > > "To ensure that GCC finds the GNU assembler (or the GNU linker)," I see no harm in that change, Gerald, what do you think?
