From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,d6f7b92fd11ab291 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-07-15 18:54:57 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F14B061.1040802@spam.com> From: Jeffrey Carter Organization: jrcarter commercial-at acm [period | full stop] org User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.0) Gecko/20020530 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Crosspost: Help wanted from comp.compilers References: <1058275843.720814@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 01:52:24 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.184.1.121 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net 1058320344 63.184.1.121 (Tue, 15 Jul 2003 18:52:24 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 18:52:24 PDT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:40316 Date: 2003-07-16T01:52:24+00:00 List-Id: John R. Strohm wrote: > > Now, it was EASY to build systems that had horrendous recompilation > problems. Usually, in order to build such a system, you had to screw up > some fairly basic software engineering things. For example, if you build a > system-wide "types" package, then every time you touch that package, you get > to recompile the world. If you build a system-wide "magic numbers" package, > same problem. Observe that the exact same problems arise in C/C++. The > answer is, of course, DON'T DO THAT. These are fairly benign problems. I know of at least one current DoD project that has a system-wide "variables" package. This software is flying in a state-of-the-art military aircraft. Not only do most upgrades involve modifying this package, and hence recompiling the entire system, but the system is 100% coupled with 0% cohesion. Understanding the system from scratch is at least as expensive as redesigning and rewriting the entire system; that's the choice they will face if the couple of developers, who have been there from the beginning and have the entire system in their heads, ever quit or are killed going out to lunch together. -- Jeff Carter "I spun around, and there I was, face to face with a six-year-old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass." Blazing Saddles