5 ms·

ELI5 on Cosmopolitan (stack visualization if available)?

• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• Evidlo 6y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25556286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25556286
• IshKebab 6y ago
  As I understand it (I haven't actually seen it explained anywhere). It's some kind of a hack that lets a single file be interpreted as both a shell script and a COM file, and a C library that does runtime detection of which OS you are running.
• baq 6y ago
  magic pixie dust for x86/amd64 executables which makes them run on bare metal, windows, linux, freebsd, ..., unchanged. it's a giant hack in the best possible meaning of the word.
  • StavrosK 6y ago
    I'm certainly doing the project a disservice with this, but isn't it "just" basically a file format hack that basically acts as an "if-check" that allows the executable to select an appropriate entry point depending on your OS?
    • fctorial 6y ago
      If checks are in the libc functions. (a guess, didn't look at the source)
      • StavrosK 6y ago
        It's more of a composite header (ELF/PE/etc) like those "it's both a JPG and a zip" things", though.
        • fctorial 6y ago
          Yes, that too.
• bitwize 6y ago
  Pretty much the binary format equivalent of that "single source file that compiles in C++/Pascal/Fortran/COBOL/shell/PHP" trick. While it's interesting in its own right, Hackernews currently thinks it's the future of computing.
  • pragmatic8 6y ago
    Indeed. I am sincerely confused as to why people are so enamored with this.