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2    Introducing Palm OS Compiler Tools

Palm OS® Protein C/C++ Compiler Tools Guide

Palm OS® Developer Suite

This chapter describes the compiler tools that you can use to build code resources for Palm OS applications:

Compiler Chain: pacc, paasm, palink ^TOP^

As is common with command line compilers, the Palm OS Protein C/C++ Compiler, pacc, acts as a driver. pacc invokes all of the commands necessary to produce linked files from source code.

Figure 2.1  Compiler Chain Overview

  • pacc compiles the source files into assembly language source files.
  • pacc calls the assembler, paasm, to produce ELF object files from the assembly language source files.
  • pacc calls the linker, palink, to generate the ELF executable image from the ELF object files.

For more information about using the compiler chain, see Chapter 3, "Using the Palm OS Compiler Chain."


IMPORTANT: It's important to note that paac and palink are only used when compiling for ARM processors. When building to run in the Palm OS Simulator, the gcc compiler is used instead, to build the necessary x86 executable code.

Palm OS Librarian: palib ^TOP^

The Palm OS librarian tool, palib, lets you create and manage a collection of ELF object files. palib creates library files that conform to the Unix 'ar' archive file format.

Figure 2.2  Librarian Overview

With palib, you can:

  • Create a new archive library.
  • Add ELF object files to the library.
  • Delete ELF object files from the library.
  • Replace ELF object files in a library.
  • Extract ELF object files from a library.

For more information about palib, see Chapter 4, "Using the Palm OS Librarian."

Diagnostic Tool: elfdump ^TOP^

elfdump lets you extract the contents of an ELF object file into a text file. With elfdump, you can:

  • Disassemble executable bytecode sections.
  • Disassemble data sections as code.
  • Disassemble for a given instruction set architecture.
  • Show only segment and section summaries.
  • Show specific sections, such as code, data, debug information or symbols.

For more information about elfdump, see Chapter 8, "Using elfdump."


NOTE: This tool is included in the compiler suite because you may find it useful, but it is an unsupported tool. It is only available from the command line.