RE: [avr-gcc-list] Remove .bss size from RAM segment of AVR ELF?

[Weddington, Eric]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tero Sinervo [mailto:address@hidden 
> Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 6:04 AM
> To: Weddington, Eric; address@hidden
> Subject: Re: [avr-gcc-list] Remove .bss size from RAM segment 
> of AVR ELF?
> 
> 
> >> This can be easily fixed in programming software but I 
> wonder if it 
> >> should be done in AVR ELF files too. Would it be possible 
> to exclude 
> >> .bss from AVR ELF file segments by setting memsz==filesz and 
> >> only keep 
> >> .bss as a section header? That would make the program part 
> of the ELF 
> >> file more consistent with actual programming.
> > 
> > What advantage does making this change bring?
> 
> The program part of AVR ELF files would be closer to actual device 
> programming by stating that you don't want to program .bss to Flash 
> memory. Nothing big as it's not a large obstacle to write your 
> programming software only to write .data and not initialize .bss.
> 

My concern is that right now, all the programming tools that I know of
already know how to deal with the current ELF file that the toolchain
generates. AVR Studio work and avrdude works. If we go about messing
around with the format of the ELF file, will we suddenly break AVR
Studio and avrdude? And for what advantage? As the saying goes: "If it
ain't broke, don't fix it."