The fresh beta of universal linker UniLink has arrived, with exciting new features.

Quoting the changelog:
+  Preliminary support of Digital Mars D language compiler.

+  The debug info processing in old CV format added (dmc, dmd, watcom, old ml).

And it works! At least for the first part.
I actually linked my port of DMDscript and run it through some stress tests, no problems so far.
The nice thing is reduction in half of the resulting binary size.

As to debug info I think it may need another round of polishing... but the devs are willing to support it ;)
C:\ulink>ulink -v test.obj
UniLink v1.07 [beta] (build 3.01)
Error: Invalid debug information in 'test.obj'

Nevertheless the grim rule of Optlink in windows lands is at end :)

Some tips on how to get started.

Grab the latest beta here (for now it's ulnb0301.zip):
ftp://ftp.styx.cabel.net/pub/UniLink/
Installation is extract + add to PATH

Also to save you a bit of investigation, the relevant ulink.cfg config for dmd is along the lines:
-zkernel32;advapi32;user32;wsock32;shell32;snn
-LC:\dmd2\windows\lib
-Go


-- 
Dmitry Olshansky

On 2/18/11 4:00 AM, Dmitry Olshansky wrote:
> The fresh beta of universal linker UniLink has arrived, with exciting
> new features.

Wow. If this works out, it is the closest thing in real life to "Deux ex machina". We were pretty much out of options.

Andrei

== Quote from Andrei Alexandrescu (SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org)'s article
> On 2/18/11 4:00 AM, Dmitry Olshansky wrote:
> > The fresh beta of universal linker UniLink has arrived, with exciting new features.
> Wow. If this works out, it is the closest thing in real life to "Deux ex
> machina". We were pretty much out of options.
> Andrei

Let's say for the sake of discussion that UniLink does work.  How close does that put us to having 64 support on Windows, too, if OptLink doesn't need to be translated/rewritten/whatever?

On 2/18/11 9:42 AM, dsimcha wrote:
> == Quote from Andrei Alexandrescu (SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org)'s article
>> On 2/18/11 4:00 AM, Dmitry Olshansky wrote:
>>> The fresh beta of universal linker UniLink has arrived, with exciting
>>> new features.
>> Wow. If this works out, it is the closest thing in real life to "Deux ex
>> machina". We were pretty much out of options.
>> Andrei
>
> Let's say for the sake of discussion that UniLink does work.  How close does that
> put us to having 64 support on Windows, too, if OptLink doesn't need to be
> translated/rewritten/whatever?

AFAIK the linker is the largest roadblock, but Walter should really answer this question.

Andrei

Am 18.02.2011 16:41, schrieb Andrei Alexandrescu:
> On 2/18/11 9:42 AM, dsimcha wrote:
>> == Quote from Andrei Alexandrescu (SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org)'s
>> article
>>> On 2/18/11 4:00 AM, Dmitry Olshansky wrote:
>>>> The fresh beta of universal linker UniLink has arrived, with exciting
>>>> new features.
>>> Wow. If this works out, it is the closest thing in real life to "Deux ex
>>> machina". We were pretty much out of options.
>>> Andrei
>>
>> Let's say for the sake of discussion that UniLink does work. How close
>> does that
>> put us to having 64 support on Windows, too, if OptLink doesn't need
>> to be
>> translated/rewritten/whatever?
>
> AFAIK the linker is the largest roadblock, but Walter should really
> answer this question.
>
> Andrei

I've got this message (and the other one from you in this thread) twice, one sent to the poster you were replying to and one without an explicit to, but both in this news group.
Was that intended?

Cheers,
- Daniel

Sounds fantastic, but what about those rumors that Unilink will become commercial sometime?

== Quote from Trass3r (un@known.com)'s article
> Sounds fantastic, but what about those rumors that Unilink will become commercial sometime?

Well, IMHO the intermediate solution would be to just get DMD to output Win64 OMF object files for now, and cross the linking bridge when we come to it.  Unilink is good enough for at least testing that the object files output by DMD are correct, and should be at least better than nothing until Optlink gets rewritten.

> Well, IMHO the intermediate solution would be to just get DMD to output Win64 OMF object files for now

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long!

Is there even such a thing as Win64 OMF?

On 2/18/11 9:48 AM, Daniel Gibson wrote:
> Am 18.02.2011 16:41, schrieb Andrei Alexandrescu:
>> On 2/18/11 9:42 AM, dsimcha wrote:
>>> == Quote from Andrei Alexandrescu (SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org)'s
>>> article
>>>> On 2/18/11 4:00 AM, Dmitry Olshansky wrote:
>>>>> The fresh beta of universal linker UniLink has arrived, with exciting
>>>>> new features.
>>>> Wow. If this works out, it is the closest thing in real life to
>>>> "Deux ex
>>>> machina". We were pretty much out of options.
>>>> Andrei
>>>
>>> Let's say for the sake of discussion that UniLink does work. How close
>>> does that
>>> put us to having 64 support on Windows, too, if OptLink doesn't need
>>> to be
>>> translated/rewritten/whatever?
>>
>> AFAIK the linker is the largest roadblock, but Walter should really
>> answer this question.
>>
>> Andrei
>
> I've got this message (and the other one from you in this thread) twice,
> one sent to the poster you were replying to and one without an explicit
> to, but both in this news group.
> Was that intended?
>
> Cheers,
> - Daniel

Yes, it's a common mistake I make. Sorry.

Andrei