Talk:Object file

message: There should be something here on the old DOS .OBJ files, which I believe were in a format called OMF (although I'm pretty sure it's not the same OMF described already).  I also think the "proprietary" format used by Borland toolsets (as mentioned above) is the same format. JulesH 11:07, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've done some digging and located some details. I've created Relocatable Object Module Format and will now link it in. JulesH 14:22, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

text: Object here is used as a synonym of "goal" or "purpose", as in the object of the assembler. Ham Pastrami (talk) 16:40, 19 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing information 

message: Object module redirects to this article. Is there something special about it compared to object file? --Abdull (talk) 09:50, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: "object module" is IBM-ese. Peter Flass (talk) 18:06, 12 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Object module 

message: Object code is simply the result of compiling source code and isn't necessarily machine code (a number of compilers for functional languages have used C as their object code for example, and javac uses JVM bytecode). The first source I can find online is , but I've seen this definition in works dating back to the 60s and I'm sure it's present in a good many works on compilers. 86.10.90.232 (talk) 12:15, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed. An object file is not necessarily "an organised collection of named objects" but simply the "object" (or result) of the compilation process. Jan1naD (talk • contrib) 10:45, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: (three years later) I also agree, and I have created the stub Object code, which was previously a thoroughly confusing redirect to Object file. 84user (talk) 16:35, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text:  It was not "thoroughly confusing". These two concepts ("the output of a compiler" and "a binary file containing machine code and related data") are not that much fundamentally distinct that they warrant separate articles - most of the time they are pretty much equivalent. Even the stub you created describes its subject pretty much the same way as this article. The splitting was completely unnecessary. Though I'd rather see a redirect the other way, from Object file to Object code, as the latter name seems more popular. Ian (87.205.128.127 (talk) 13:34, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Object code != "the stuff in an object file" 

message: How about the following as a definition of object file?
(with appropriate links, they apparently got lost when I cut and pasted)
"An object file is a file containing relocatable format machine code that is usually not directly executable. Object files are produced by an assembler, compiler, or other language translator, and used as input to the linker.
Additionally, object files may contain metadata such as information to resolve symbolic cross-references between different modules, relocation information, stack unwinding information, comments, program symbols, debugging or profiling information). A linker is typically used to generate an executable or library by combining parts of object files."Peter Flass (talk) 03:38, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Definition