On 04-05-2012 00:47, Pierre LeMoine wrote:
Hi!
I'm interested in starting a project to make a linker besides optlink
for dmd on windows. If possible it'd be cool to run it as a
gsoc-project, but if that's not an option I'll try to get it admitted as
a soc-project at my university.
Absolutely possible, though too late for this year's GSoC. If you're
still interested in working on it for GSoC 2013 (if Google decides to do
another GSoC (which they most likely will)), then be sure to submit a
proposal!
Anyway, the project would aim to be a replacement or alternative to
optlink on windows. I've personally encountered quite a few seemingly
random problems with optlink, and the error messages are not exactly
friendly. My vision is to create a linker in a relatively modern
language (D) and to release the project as open source.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Though in my personal opinion, you should
try to make the linker as platform-agnostic as possible, so it's easy to
adapt for new platforms / file formats.
So, I'm curious about some things; Is it too late to get this accepted
as a summer of code project? Are there any current alternative linkers
for dmd on windows, or any current projects aiming to create one? And do
any of you know of a "Everything you need to know to write the best
linker ever" resource center? ;]
Too late for this year's GSoC.
For another linker option, see Unilink.
As for resources on linkers, I think your best bet is reading the LLVM
and GCC source code. I think someone also started an LLVM (machine code)
linker project recently, but I don't know where to find it.
/Pierre
--
- Alex
