What are the details of the Acorn Object Format?

[Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson]

Dear c.s.a.p,

I am getting slightly interested in the internal object format
in RISC OS. As I understand, this is called AOF or Acorn Object
Format [1].

Is this format documented somewhere online? Isn't this what the
DDE compilers generate, or am I mistaken about something?

I have previously found this AIF description, but it does not say
if the object format is the same, or different.


https://paolozaino.wordpress.com/2020/08/07/risc-os-introduction-to-the-arm-aif-object-file-format/

To be clear, I'm asking about what the compilers typically put in the
.o directory, before linking takes place.

[1] Referenced several times in,


http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Manuals/Acorn_CambridgeCoProUG.pdf

and indexed as Acorn Object Format.

Thanks,

[Martin]

Post by Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson
Dear c.s.a.p,
I am getting slightly interested in the internal object format
in RISC OS. As I understand, this is called AOF or Acorn Object
Format [1].
Is this format documented somewhere online? Isn't this what the
DDE compilers generate, or am I mistaken about something?

It is documented the the Programmers Reference Manual volume 4, in
Appendix D. If you have the Desktop Development Environment (DDE)
which contains the C compiler and more, you should have pdf copies of
that manual in Documents.Manuals.

ROOL did have paper copies of the PRM printed, but I do not think any
are currently available.

[Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson]

Post by Martin

Post by Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson
Dear c.s.a.p,
I am getting slightly interested in the internal object format
in RISC OS. As I understand, this is called AOF or Acorn Object
Format [1].
Is this format documented somewhere online? Isn't this what the
DDE compilers generate, or am I mistaken about something?

It is documented the the Programmers Reference Manual volume 4, in
Appendix D. If you have the Desktop Development Environment (DDE)
which contains the C compiler and more, you should have pdf copies of
that manual in Documents.Manuals.
ROOL did have paper copies of the PRM printed, but I do not think any
are currently available.

Thank you, I have the DDE and PRM, but did not look at volume 4 yet.

[druck]

Post by Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson
Dear c.s.a.p,
I am getting slightly interested in the internal object format
in RISC OS.  As I understand, this is called AOF or Acorn Object
Format [1].
Is this format documented somewhere online?  Isn't this what the
DDE compilers generate, or am I mistaken about something?

It's all in the Acorn C/C++ DDE documentation.

Post by Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson
I have previously found this AIF description, but it does not say
if the object format is the same, or different.

It is different.

Get my !ARMalyser from http://www.armclub.org.uk/free as that will
disassemble AOF files and annotate their structure. I recommend using
ARMalysers 'assembler' output (rather than 'disassembler') as this will
closely match the assembler listings you can get the compiler to output.

---druck