Re: Linker ... still useful ?

          I don't understand what would cause linkers to go out of date. The
functions of a linkage editor stem from the practical reality that an
application or group of applications tend to be larger than a developer
can process in a single compileable or assembleable unit. But the utility
of a good linkage editor doesn't end there. Linkage editors are effective
tools to configure and reconfigure code segments to execute in diverse
environments, for example.


          Although it is sometimes possible to accomplish the normal linking
functions other ways, it is also possible to go back to the old days of
writing machine code by hand on quadrile pads and entering them through
switches on the front panel. As small systems have become prominent in
the computer world and as less and less powerful linkers have been used
with those systems and as new programmers become less adept at utilizing
the power of linkage editors the software development process has been
hurt.


Joel Runes
z005465b@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us
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