BASIS FOR COMPARISON

LINKER

LOADER

Basic

It generates the executable module of a source program.

It loads the executable module to the main memory.

Input

It takes as input, the object code generated by an assembler.

It takes executable module generated by a linker.

Function

It combines all the object modules of a source code to generate an executable module.

It allocates the addresses to an executable module in main memory for execution.

Type/Approach

Linkage Editor, Dynamic linker.

Absolute loading, Relocatable loading and Dynamic Run-time loading.