Hiya-
Welllll, basically these guys are right. You can get a
*TINY* bit of information from some object files that have
to be LINKED with other code modules.
You can get things like globals and entry points, stuff
like that by using the ar (1) command in most 'nixes.
As the nice gentlemen have pointed out, deducing an
Algorythmn from the object file would be almost exceedingly
difficult.
The object file is an intermediate file that is produced
as an OUTPUT from a compiler. The resulting file is then
linked to the rest of the object files/libraries to
produce a relocatable image that is loaded into core,
then executed by the CPU. The relocatable is optional
depending upon operating system and CPU type.
To quote the GNU Fortran documentation:
"Compilation can involve as many as four stages: preprocessing, code generation (often what is really meant by the term "compilation"), assembly, and linking, always in that order. The first three stages apply to an individual source file, and end by producing an object file; linking combines all the object files (those newly compiled, and those specified as input) into an executable file."
Which can be found in the page at:
You might have to cut and paste the link.
Hope this helps. Get the source.
Cheers,
Rich S.