Which linker? Microsoft or GNU?

Which Linker?

Functional Developer allows you to use one of two linkers to link a compiled Dylan program.

There is the GNU linker, which is free and the default, or the Microsoft linker, which requires the purchase of an add-on pack. The Microsoft Linker add-on pack does not included the linker itself - you must already have this to make use of it.

While free, the GNU linker results in much slower link times. In a large project I've noticed that the GNU programs to link the application are called many times - often resulting in the link stage taking the most time in building the application.

The Microsoft Linker option is very fast. The linker is only called once to link the project and it is substantially quicker. In my opinion it is worth the price of the linker add-on pack to save you a lot of time during application development. Linking is an operation that will happen a lot and the difference in speed between the two options is large.

You will need the Microsoft Linker program (link.exe) to make use of the add-on pack. This can be obtained from a Microsoft development tool (Visual C++ for example) or you can download the Microsoft Platform SDK for free and it is included in that. I use the Microsoft linker from the April 2000 Platform SDK.