Re: C/C++ programmer giving Ada95 a chance -- writing an emulator.

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <8ciddt$2v7$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> writes:

> So our compilation requires 10 seconds of CPU time. Since this
> can be overlapped with reading the sources, there is no reason
> not to expect the compilation to be finished in less than half
> a minute.
> 
> Could one write an Ada compiler that compiled this fast? Yes,
> but it would be a very large project. Is it worth it? No.

Another area of overlap is program compilation with programmer
thinking about the problem.  Human instinct can sometimes lead
the programmer to try to "keep up with" the machine and make a
test run as soon as the compilation is done rather than waiting
until the thinking is done.

A faster compiler can result in a considerably larger number of
compilations to reach the same end result, possibly with a much
longer wall clock time.