sharable libraries for Unix - HELP

[RSanders at USGS2-MULTICS.ARPA]

Scene:  VAX 750 + 4.2 BSD.  DI3000 device independent graphics package
(~160,000 lines of Fortran, hundreds (?thousands) of subroutines).  A
hungry programmer population about to start developing lots of
application programs - each of which will need N versions of a.out for N
device drivers (where N is about 10).  Typical a.out sizes for trivial
programs - 400K.

Next scene:  Disks 99% full.  All of cpu cycles absorbed by ld steps of
f77.  System manager crying in corner.

I've looked at the dynamic loading code recently re-transmitted by
Patrick Powell - doesn't seem to help the combo of Fortran (no function
pointers) and zillions of entry points.  Besides, even more cpu cycles
absorbed by ld (trade off for disk space).  Anyone have any bright
ideas?

-- Rex RSanders at Denver (milnet)

sometimes I really miss Multics.