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No, you've got it backwards. The format is called that because it was the format of the a.out file.
by Sniffnoy 8y ago
No, you've got it backwards. The format is called that because it was the format of the a.out file.
- SilasX 8y agoSo they named the standard compiler output "a.out", for independent reasons, and when it came time to distinguish formats, they called the original standard format "a.out" just because that's what the file name always was?
- Sniffnoy 8y agoExactly. I mean, I don't know the exact history of when the name "a.out" got transferred to the format, but I have to assume that it wasn't until there was something to contrast it with.