a.out vs elf

I didn't really know that. a.out is not really a.out. its elf. i had a
doubt and i confirmed today.

elf, a.out, coff and ecoff are the executable formats for *nix.elf stands
for Executable and Linking Format, now the widely used executable format.
so when we give gcc * -o a.out the output is actually and elf binary.

how about doing something like gcc * -o a.elf or out.elf or program.elf
"more intellectual"

the difference between all these formats is that a.out has very few
segments, .data, .text, .bss, symbol table and string table only while elf
covers all of the segments, and 32 and 64 bits stuff.

surprise hmmm!!!

i want to know how do i make gcc give me a real a.out ??