Author: Amir Ban
Date: 09:34:38 07/29/98
Go up one level in this thread
On July 29, 1998 at 10:08:11, Bruce Moreland wrote: >This is talking about how the executable file is loaded into RAM. This would be >done before the first instruction is executed, obviously. > I don't know if affects the rest of your argument, but the above statement is false. Strange as it may sound, the first instruction is usually executed before any of the executable is loaded. This is true for the VxD's, and Win32 applications and DLL's. When one of these are started, Windows loads *nothing* but lets the application get loaded automatically to memory through the mechanism of demand-paging, meaning that individual pages of the executable are brought into memory only if and when they are actually executed, in response to a page fault that is generated from the attempt to execute non-existent memory. This also means that the executable is loaded in parts, and in timing that depends on what the executable actually does. This was invented in Unix, and the Win32 exe-file format is more or less taken over from the Unix coff format. The old Win16 and DOS VM applications get loaded in the conventional way that you assumed. Amir
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.