Amiga.org
Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga.org site announcements => Topic started by: Kees on May 20, 2003, 03:41:49 PM
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We did an interview with Ben Hermans, who agreed to answer some questions from readers of Amiga.org
Check here (http://amiga.org/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=8) for his answers ...
Please note that the interview has been moved to it's new home, Here (http://amiga.org/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=8)
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The time is near :-)
We always knew the answer to Q3, i guess people must have missed those loads of posts that stated that os4 could go on threw Hyperion no matter what happened to A .inc.
Not that anything bad is happening ;-)
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Poster: Calen Date: 2003/5/20 10:57:42
We always knew the answer to Q3, i guess people must have missed those loads of posts that stated that os4 could go on threw Hyperion no matter what happened to A .inc.
The issue on licensing is still an issue, regardless on how the contract is written, if/when Amiga Inc goes under. US Bankruptsy Courts have the final say so on that matter. Sure, Hyperion can continue to work on their OS regardless of what happens to Amiga Inc, it's their code. Being able to market it, OTOH, as Amiga OS * is subject to Amiga Inc remaining viable. Remember, Amiga Inc wants OS5 to be ported to x86, and we all know what Hyperion thinks of x86. :-D
Dammy
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We always knew the answer to Q3,
@Calen,
Yes, it's been stated lots of times, I guess the other part of his answer: "Certain parties are hoping for the demise of Amiga Inc.," comes into play here. Maybe some fokes just want to believe the wost. Relax.
Zoltan
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I'm glad their not completely throwing out the idea of a Peggy port. :-)
BTW: good job on the interview Kees!
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The issue on licensing is still an issue
Something only a politition or Murray Walker would say ;-)
Neil Thomas, AKA MiniBobF
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He didn't answer my question :-(
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He dodged my question like true politician! Why do they need all this stuff from Genesi about the Pegasos specs? None of the developers of the OS's that run on Pegasos currently have needed such things.
At least they haven't ruled it out. If AInc go under, maybe they will release it for Peg then.
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I'm glad their not completely throwing out the idea of a Peggy port
@redrumloa,
Me too, I like the idea of being able to run several OS on a board.
I just read an interview with Dave Hayne about his PIOS days (on ann.lu) and he mentions that at the time MacOS had twice the market share it does now. I know IBM does some PPC-based designs (servers, that PDA reference design), but if we are going to get PPC machines down in cost, it's good if we can run more than 1-2 OS's on each board.
Zoltan
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@ Carls
Don't blame Ben ... i made a list of questions that we send to him ... not every question was relayed.
Sorry ... maybe next time
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Final remark: when shrinking partitions, you'll likely to end up with an highly defragmented partition. So what you usually do is to defragment. So almost each file will be read and rewritten; that's more or less the same as backing up all the data, repartitioning, reformatting, and restoring the backup.
Ex cept it's being done transparently, and in Windows you can't actually copy all files to another partition and back again anyway (at least not Win95 system files can't be moved?)
Of course, what one COULD do is to make an application that makes the whole process a bit more transparent to the user. I do it all the time on Linux systems with tar and fdisk, but some users might not be comfortable with that :-)
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He dodged my question like true politician! Why do
they need all this stuff from Genesi about the Pegasos
specs? None of the developers of the OS's that run on
Pegasos currently have needed such things.
At least they haven't ruled it out. If AInc go under, maybe
they will release it for Peg then.
Well, I believe it's nothing much to dodge. Hyperion *is*
after all only licensing AOS from AInc (I use "only" in a very
loose sense though) - the fail-safe thing is resting unless
AInc goes bust. In order to open up another hardware
market (like the Pegasos), it's rather logical that AInc has
to have its say. And if they say they need the hardware
licenced and Genesi won't licence it (for whatever reason),
Hyperion simply can't port to it. I belive Ben is quite correct
referring to AInc in this matter. It *is* still their OS, no
matter what some might think or like about it.
(A disclaimer: I haven't seen the licensing agreement
between Hyperion and AInc, so this is all conjecture on my
part.)
.
SlimJim
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@mdma:
Dodged the question? He gave *three* good reasons why they aren't currently working on a Pegasos version:
*No license. Why should Hyperion strain their resources further just to make a version that can not, and may never, be legally used with the Pegasos?
*Small market. Does an *absolute maximum* of 600 sales (and this is a maximum they would be unlikely to reach) justify the extra development effort?
*No documentation. I somehow doubt that writing low-level stuff without a hardware documentation is as convenient as writing it with full documentation.
How could he have been more direct? (Seriously, please explain, I really don't see how)
Kay
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@nOMAAM
So it's YOUR fault! I'm FURIOUS!
No, actually, I'm not blaming anyone :-)
Perhaps someone else knows how many developers are working on OS4?
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you act as though pegasos is 'done' ... as a board... sure the Peg1 is done...but Peg2 is comming out this year ...and will definitly be superior to the A1 in its current iteration... it would be wise to get OS4 onto superior hardware.
I personally dont care about OS4 now... and wouldnt want the name Amiga on my board/os/etc when I buy my Pegasos...
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I thought it was a very decent interview.
Thanks and well played. ;-)
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so did I... I liked the interview... I think he answered my question alright... and I know some people say 'it was already answered' ... but what I was saying is that... I know they have rights to develop OS4... but I wondered if they had rights to develop AOS 'AFTER" OS4... should someone else buy the IP
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The most exciting moment was no doubt the moment (more than 1 month ago now) when the Workbench screen first came up running on top of ExecSG.
Now I'd like to have an answer to a question Ray Akey dodged last time, concerning the OS4 release date in last year's November. That has been 6 months before.
Who provided that release date to Amiga Inc? Was it Hyperion, or was it just Amiga Inc's own makeup?
As it's clearly visible that Hyperion didn't even had an OS4 able to boot up even a Workbench back then, I'm pretty curious who lied intentionally to the community.
I know, I know, I could ask it earlier, blame me... :-)
But now I'm pretty much interested in from where all the (some dozen?) bogus release dates originated from?
(I have a pretty biased guess, but I won't name the certain company)
Anyway, keep up the good work and release your OS!
And thanks for all the answers. All seemed to be honest, and not exaggerating,
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> you act as though pegasos is 'done' ... as a board... sure the Peg1 is done...but Peg2 is
> comming out this year
I don't act as anything, I was merely elaborating on what Ben himself said. I am aware that there are plans for a Pegasos 2, as is he. For now it isn't available, though, so *currently* the market is limited to a total maximum 600, with no more boards being made.
> and will definitly be superior to the A1 in its current iteration... it would be wise to get OS4
> onto superior hardware.
Heh, we'll see when both of the boards you are comparing exists. :-)
Kay
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But would it make sense porting OS4 to Peg2 _now_?
Is there even a prototype or at least an emulator?
Can you be certain the darn thing will actually surface (no, previous products actually reaching a 600 person market does not count as a guarantee, I'm afraid. Even multibillion dollar companies will scrap ideas once in a while, so it would NOT be uncommon for someone like Genesi to change the specs of the Peg2 some or totyally before release)
Is it economically sound? Do you know it will sell?
You see, it's difficult to predict, especially when it comes to the future ;-)
So I don't think everyone should take the route that "since OS4 does not as of yet run on non-existant hardware, it will most certainly fail". If enough of the right people want it to, it'll run on it, darn tootin! :-)
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my question is does OS4 exist 'now" ? maybe this whole argument is baseless... since the OS in question dosent exist yet...
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c'mon he says he has tangible evidence that Amiga Inc. isn't going bust any time soon. Well, if Amiga Inc. isn't broke, then what is their excuse for no t-shirts, not paying employee's, for not paying creditors...just to !@#$@ with people?
No, being broke isn't good, but its the best excuse. Otherwise, they aren't paying people, for no reason at all. Thats not better! thats worse, it implies fraud and criminal behaviour and everything else...geez
If Hyperion is so separate from these other parties, why does Ben continually defend their actions and make excuses for them?
If Ben says he has 'tangible evidence' that means exactly nothing. Until he provides his evidence, he has nothing.
Edit by nOMAAM : personal attack
Good to see OS 4 is making progress, but getting workbench to load atop of exec sg for the first time, last month, doesn't imply an extended period of bug fixing, but implies they will get this out the door as soon as possible.
all-in-all I didn't expect them to do anything else....and if its just as stable as 3.9, I think we can forgive them for a few crashes. but those who said they were glad for delays, cause they wanted a bug free product...they aren't going to get that...and btw DUH.
I look forward to OS 4's release...heck....with the exception of a few peg 1 owners, the only other choice is 3.9, and that's not a good choice anymore.
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>If Ben says he has 'tangible evidence' that means exactly >nothing. Until he provides his evidence, he has nothing. Fact >is, Ben loves to have people jump to conclusions...we get it >Ben, some people will jump to any conclusion...woo weeee, >you must be really proud of yourself, you can fool some >very gullible people.
You are making a fool out of yourself, only you don't know it yet.
Rest assured that I would never make such a statement without firm evidence.
>Good to see OS 4 is making progress, but getting workbench >to load atop of exec sg for the first time, last month, doesn't >imply an extended period of bug fixing, but implies they will >get this out the door as soon as possible.
I suggest you actually read the interview. I'm referring specifically to question 2.
Moreover, Hyperion has a reputation of releasing quality products.
I see no reason to doubt why it would be different with OS 4.0.
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The saddest part is, he took 3 paragraphs to answer my question, when
the end answer is "nothing is there to differentiate AmigaOS 4.0 from
MorphOS 1.3 in the eyes of those outside of the community."
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An interesting interview, I thought.
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>Moreover, Hyperion has a reputation of releasing
>quality products.
The Linux port for AmigaOne was also annoucned to
be ported by Hyperion. But it seems to have a
serious bug in it.
I also want to remind you that for example for
Heretic2 there first was a patch needed because
otherwise the game crashed for many people
because someone forgot to compile the user
release without debug code.
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Hello,
@HyperionMP
"Moreover, Hyperion has a reputation of releasing quality products."
As I know you can read french, I invite you to read the article about Hyperion latest announcement in this french Mac games website:
Hyperion announcement LudoMac article (French) (http://www.ludomac.com/news.php?page=4)
also read the comments (still in french) on this other Mac website:
MacGamezone Hyperion announcement article (French) (http://www.macgeneration.com/mgnews/depeche.php?aIdDepeche=99439)
Regards
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Hehe I started reading the question I wrote and thinking "This looks familiar!" :lol:
@meerschaum
you act as though pegasos is 'done' ... as a board... sure the Peg1 is done...but Peg2 is comming out this year ...and will definitly be superior to the A1 in its current iteration... it would be wise to get OS4 onto superior hardware.
I personally dont care about OS4 now... and wouldnt want the name Amiga on my board/os/etc when I buy my Pegasos...
Firstly there are only are 600 (+plus internal Genesi) boards in existance, and there is no-way of knowing 100% for certain whether the Peg2 will ever be produced in quantity until it is physically available.
Secondly you are answering your own question about why there would be a limited market on Peg - Many users would not be interested on PAYING for OS4. MOS has been forming it's own identity (as far as it can in it's present state), and many users would never have anything to do with Amiga again (like yourself)
Finally the whole issue isn't totally transparent as people make out (I still maintain that the question is unfair).
From what has been said so far, it seems that Licenesing goes through Amiga inc, rather than Hyperion licencing each port themselves, so it is out of thier hands, and up to Amiga Inc. (Never gonna happen).
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@ Frodon
Please .. let us not go *that* way ... lets keep it clean.
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Apart from noMaam's apparant inability to type 'answer' correctly :), I think it was a fine interview and I thank you for the effort, both interviewer and interviewed.
I have much respect for Hyperion. Just thought you should know - it all helps, right? :)
Sincerely,
-Kenneth Straarup.
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LOL .. thanks ...
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Firstly there are only are 600 (+plus internal Genesi) boards in existance, and there is no-way of knowing 100% for certain whether the Peg2 will ever be produced in quantity until it is physically available.
On the other hand it seems like there not more than 600 AmigaOnes out there either, judging from the eager screams in forums of " hopefully soon" getting one.. :-)
But I liked the interview, and would like to see more.. once a month till OS4 is released for those who don't get to see CAM, maybe?
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Poster: Kay Date: 2003/5/20 17:15:15
@mdma:
Dodged the question? He gave *three* good reasons why they aren't currently working on a Pegasos version:
*No license. Why should Hyperion strain their resources further just to make a version that can not, and may never, be legally used with the Pegasos?
*Small market. Does an *absolute maximum* of 600 sales (and this is a maximum they would be unlikely to reach) justify the extra development effort?
*No documentation. I somehow doubt that writing low-level stuff without a hardware documentation is as convenient as writing it with full documentation.
How could he have been more direct? (Seriously, please explain, I really don't see how)
Kay
I was being sarcastic.
But seriously, the A1 is not much different to the Pegasos, the main difference is about 200 dollars! ;-)
edited by admin : inappropriate conversation regarding piracy of OS4
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Mr. Hermans
Thank you very much for doing this interview. It is very important to a lot of people with Amigas and awaiting your OS to purchase new ones. I thought it was very upfront and informative - unlike other people... I am very excited to buy OS4 for our 4000T PPC and I'm sure you have a good product.. I am writing this on a Pegasos and love it though ;) But, I still support Amiga products and people like Hyperion and Eyetech keep up the good work. You will be making a lot of people happy and hopefully making some money for yoursel :)
magnetic
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@Ben,
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. Sorry it has taken me so long today to notice this thread and make the following request to the members of this site. Even though it doesn't seem like it based on some of the comments here, your input is appreciated.
@all amiga.org members and visitors
Ben Hermans was nice enough to grant us a bit of his time to answer a few questions. His responses are not open for your debate. If you disagree with his answers, that's fine, but this comment thread is not the place for it.
Whether or not you like or agree with his answers, please respect the fact that he took the time when there are a lot of other officials in this community who wouldn't.
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> because quite a few "experts" claimed that our emulation integration concept couldn't possibly work
wierd or what ? who's the expert that claimed that ? :-D
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> I was being sarcastic.
Oh. Sorry, I didn't see that. There are so many strange viewpoints these days, you can't really tell who are being serious anymore.
> But seriously, the A1 is not much different to the Pegasos, the main difference is about 200 dollars! ;-)
Ooooh. Touchè :-). Hopefully, in a month or two, I'll have a good comeback, like ("...and approximately 1000 units"). In the meantime, I'll settle for "...and 200MHz and an Altivec". :-D (and don't try telling me the G3 Pegasos is faster anyway)
Kay
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I always enjoy Ben's updates, he manages to whet the appetite without committing Hyperion to a deadline.
I have worked for a software company and am aware of the kind of things that can surface during development that can put the kybosh on the whole project. Don't forget that OS4.0 is being complied for different combinations of hardware, and on reflection their job would be much simpler if we all owned Aones.....
I'm quite intrigued as to what game titles will be announced when OS4 is released, although a PC gaming system makes sense for me right now I can't quite take the plunge with the prospect of a new Amiga round the corner......
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(off topic sorry)
peg 1 G4 upgrade should be available in june / 1st july
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It's a nice interview BTW
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;-) I, for one, look forward to the final release of OS4, which looks to be closer now than ever before.
Thank you, Mr. Hermans.
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Remember, Amiga Inc wants OS5 to be ported to x86, and we all know what Hyperion thinks of x86.
Not exactly. Amiga, Inc. wants OS5 to be platform independent. There's a marked difference.
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@Warface
Just a correction.. I didn't "dodge" any such question and don't even recall being asked. However, please realize that I would have flat out told you that I would not answer a question relating to release timing. ETA estimates are up to those working on the project (or at least the project manager) to address.
Maybe you were thinking of Fleecy and got us confused?
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An interview with someone regarding Amiga that isn't espousing age-old things we already know (aka "Fleecy")? Music to my ears!
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oooh. Touchè . Hopefully, in a month or two, I'll have a good comeback, like ("...and approximately 1000 units"). In the meantime, I'll settle for "...and 200MHz and an Altivec". (and don't try telling me the G3 Pegasos is faster anyway)
:lol:
I am in no way a Pegasos fanboy, or an A1 fanboy. I just want to purchase the most cost effective solution for me. At the moment that is a Pegasos..
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edited by admin : inappropriate conversation regarding piracy of OS4
Wayne,
Why was my comment innapropriate? I was merely pointing out that people will use a cracked copy of OS4 on the Pegasos. Wouldn't it be better to release it in a box with manuals for people to buy, rather than have people pirate it? I for one will buy OS4 as soon as it comes out. If I have to 'patch' it myself to run on a Pegasos I will. There's nothing illegal about that. Well, not in the UK anyway.
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Nice interwiew, nice work Amiga.Org.
Sadly spoiled by some pretty sad comments, but as they always come from the same persons, it's quite easy to spot and just skip...
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Perhaps some clarification about if the BlizzardPPC version of OS4 still is a "go" could be made?
There's been some information now for some time about things working on the CyberstormPPC.
Dan A
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Thanks Ben for visiting the site and taking the time to answer the questions. There are a lot of officials who wouldn't take the time..
Though I don't agree that a person is foolish for waiting for verification before jumping to conclusions.... it is nevertheless now clear, that it is not appropriate in the comments section of an interview, to issue commentary on the interview.
I have been chagrined.
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I thinks its very nice they answered the questions. I don't think Amiga Incorporated is going broke either. I think they Currently have an 'unstable' cashflow. My dad worked for a company like that before, bit of a race to the bank on the paycheck days. Not that they went out of business though. A Inc. I hope is honorable enough to pay back their employees as soon as they have the cash which will be generated in the original style, game market stuff.
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Remember, Amiga Inc wants OS5 to be ported to x86
Not quite x86, i.e. on top of Tao’s virtual processor (If I recall correctly). IF we have HAL for certain hardware (e.g. GPU, DSP and 'etc'), why not the CPU?
PS; Bernie has the AmigaOS (~3.x) license for x86. I do recall Hyperion has the intentions to filter some of their AOS4 modules to Bernie’s AmigaOS x86 project.
I wonder IF Cloanto’s product will update their AmigaOS distribution with some AOS 4.0’s modules(after the release of AOS4).
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You see, it's difficult to predict, especially when it comes to the future
Not quite with Windows**... e.g. Longhorn, Anvil, Windows 2003, Visual Studio dotNET 2003 and 'etc' .
**X86 Editions.
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Certainly a nice interview and I hope to see more like it.
Hopefully OS4 will become a purchasable commodity for
the Peg, but if not that's OK. I'm sure MOS will suit my needs
just fine. :)
Hmetal wrote:
>Just a correction.. I didn't "dodge" any such question...
>Maybe you were thinking of Fleecy and got us confused?
No confusion, at least I recall perfectly as I reiterated
the desire for a response to the question after Warface
had asked. I wasn't too shocked, as you have indeed
either "dodged" or didn't notice a few questions that I
have posted regarding different issues (such as clarifying
the CEO circus - show).
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oh yes, one other thing...I was edited for making a personal attack. I am unaware to which individual person that directed an 'attack' on. In fact I think its accurate to say I did not make a personal attack, but I will nevertheless apologize for what I did do, which is suggest that there exist gullible people.
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nOMAAM and Ben
Nice interview. Thanks, Ben, for taking time to answer our questions.
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redfox
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@Ben
Thanks, Ben, for taking the time to answer some questions for the community.
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still no comment of software companies that will be developing types of software for the amiga, but its nice to know it can be used as a kiosk
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@HMetal
Poster: HMetal Date: 2003/5/20 22:58:00
@Warface
Just a correction.. I didn't "dodge" any such question and don't even recall being asked. However, please realize that I would have flat out told you that I would not answer a question relating to release timing. ETA estimates are up to those working on the project (or at least the project manager) to address.
Maybe you were thinking of Fleecy and got us confused?
I don't want to spoil the thread, so I withstand from continuing the issue, but here (http://amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1985) is the url for the thread, where you exactly did that.
Sorry to all those who felt offended by the partly offtopic issue
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Moreover, Hyperion has a reputation of releasing quality products.
I see no reason to doubt why it would be different with OS 4.0.
I've been fearing, that quality of OS4 would be on par with previous game ports by Hyperion, which, by experience, were proven VERY buggy...
Shogo seemed to be "the least unstabile", usually after 2nd install, it installed almost whole game (missing only few textures) and the game itself seemed to be more stabile than the rest - I think, I've managed to play it 1-2hours before crash!
Freespace, on the other hand, seems the worst: Crashes a lot, of course, mostly during mission :-(
That's really a shame, becouse if you ask me, Freespace is the best game Hyperion has ported, if considering only the "quality of the game", not (un)stability...
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I've been fearing, that quality of OS4 would be on par with previous game ports by Hyperion, which, by experience, were proven VERY buggy...
On Hyperion's defence and to remain balanced, you can only make a perfect/stable/never crashing port if the original is perfect/stable/never crashing.
That's not always the case, and when the original is buggy too you can help little on that. I have no insider knowledge however what percentage of bugs are from the original or are the results from the porting process, just added a note.
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If you have problems with Shogo and Freespace crashing, you should not waste your time complaining about it on public fora but instead:
1. Register yourself on our site so you can download all the latest updates.
2. Subscribe yourself to the Hyperion dev list so you can ask for help.
If you ask me, your problem is more than likely due to the fact that you are running some kind of hack (like Executive) or your hardware is causing issues.
It's a known fact that our games stretch the hardware to the limit and this will cause heat-related issues or will bring down the machine if the memory speed is set too low (60 ns).
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@Hammer
> I wonder IF Cloanto’s product will update their
> AmigaOS distribution with some AOS 4.0’s
> modules(after the release of AOS4).
I doubt it. AFAIK it doesn't contain 3.5 or 3.9 stuff either, just 1.0 up to to 3.1
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You're joking now, right? Fix bugs instead of blaming the hardware.
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If you don't know that especially the BlizzardPPC is prone to overheating, you don't have a clue.
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If you don't know that especially the BlizzardPPC is prone to overheating, you don't have a clue.
Not that it counts, but it depends on the BlizzPPC you use. My BVPPC 060 had no intentions for overheating at all.
Anyway, can we stay on topic please?
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Obviously you have no idea how to cool BlizzardPPC properly. It's been more than 2 years since my machine last crashed due to an overheat problem. On the other hand, perhaphs it's not your games that crash Blizzards, just buggy WarpOS ;)
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I wonder if Amiga-related companies liken PR to throwing bricks at a wasp's nest :-)
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Wayne stated the news feedback here was NOT to be used for OT bashing, please stay on topic or get editted. You have a beef? Use the forums.
Admin fingers are starting to get itchy;-)
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@ redrumloa
I think maybe you should've directed your comment at someone, rather than the alternative of lots of "who, me?" replies :-)
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I was watching a ep on tape of Murder She Wrote and noticed a Amiga in the background of a hotel room and the user was bashed over the head with a candle stick, Jessica did find out the murderer was an ex lover so the hero did save the day yet again but that is one less amigan :-)
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Nice Q&A :-)
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Actually the "experts" that Hermans talks about never said anything of the sort.
What "they" said was basically you'd never get such an emulation concept working in the "2 months" Hermans publically specified for it.
18months to two years of hard work is about what "they" estimated, and lo and behold were proved right.
(We won't even mention the many times you changed your ABI for OS4.x in order to try and get it to work. I can dig up some "SystemV sucks!" arguments from Steffen... they will go well with the "gcc is evil" and "ELF is monster!!" stuff)
Nobody said a sandbox was the only solution either.
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I wonder if Amiga-related companies liken PR to throwing bricks at a wasp's nest
That's the funniest thing I've read all day- Thanks!
(It's true too)
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@Neko:
Steffen may have harped about ELF prior to joining to Hyperion but this was never the official line.
Hyperion has consistently used GCC on various platforms (Amiga, Linux and even Mac OS X).
We never changed the OS 4 ABI.
Incidentally, the experts DID claim that what we are trying to do is impossible.
Here's a very recent quote from an American Genesi employee on a public IRC session, no prices for guessing who it was from:
"I don't consider Hyperion a bad company, but they do not have the experience nor manpower to do a proper job of a brand-new OS, which is what AOS4 is. they have the original source. is the common arguement, but what good is that source? BCPL? 68k asm? hardware-optimized C code? The actual usable code is less than 20% of the whole so they have a whole-scale OS to write, essentially from scratch and due to the architecture they chose for this OS, they have not a clue if it will ever run until late in the cycle".
Now that's somebody who doesn't have a clue.
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whoever said video game porting companys wherent the best people for the job of making a new OS???....
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With all due respect to Rob Peck et al, authors of the RKM, it is a lot easier to port something using original source code (in almost any programming language) than it is from verbal explanations of how it is supposed to behave or reverse engineering a disassembly from a decidedly different CPU.
Commented original source code is even better.
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>Steffen may have harped about ELF prior to joining to >Hyperion but this was never the official line.
I am using a compiler using ELF as my favourite
compiler since the Heretic II port (which was how many years ago ?). At that time back then I was given reasons
by Jochen Becher (who was really NOT liking ELF) why ELF would be an extremely bad idea. And as I was very
impressed with his other work I believed him up to it at that time :) I still remember that I had discussions with Jochen about that issue at a later time.
It should be known that since many years I am very pro the gcc-WarpUP compiler and am recommending it to
all people who ask which compiler they should use on AmigaOS. And this compiler internally uses ELF (even though the files will be converted to hunk format after linking...)
I find it interesting that certain people bring this up again and again (maybe else they run out of arguments ? :) ),
while they never for example bring up that at one point
one of the (now) MOS-inventors was argueing that the Amiga Shared Library format should be given up and replaced by
a different API (Sorry I cannot come up with cites of news-posts like the certain people...). They could throw this back at the guy always also that he said that
back then !!! :) But for SOME reason they don't do THIS.
It has also to be noted that "at that time back" the integration of ELF (having to start patches in the startup-sequence) into AmigaOS was NOT as it should have been done. Also from a developer's sight (early ppc.library versions) it was a different API from what
developers were used to. When I was against ELF those
years ago this always played a role, that I was not particularly impressed by the OS-integration of it in ppc.library.
Steffen