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-Thread: 103376,aea4cc77526f5e4a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!proxad.net!feeder1-2.proxad.net!213.200.89.82.MISMATCH!tiscali!newsfeed1.ip.tiscali.net!fi.sn.net!newsfeed2.fi.sn.net!news.song.fi!not-for-mail Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:18:52 +0200 From: Niklas Holsti User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20060628 Debian/1.7.8-1sarge7.1 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Separate Compilation in Programming Languages References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <47bf11df$0$14990$4f793bc4@news.tdc.fi> Organization: TDC Internet Services NNTP-Posting-Host: laku61.adsl.netsonic.fi X-Trace: 1203704287 news.tdc.fi 14990 81.17.205.61:32975 X-Complaints-To: abuse@tdcnet.fi Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19983 Date: 2008-02-22T20:18:52+02:00 List-Id: adaworks@sbcglobal.net wrote: > Recently, I have been engaged in some conversations with colleagues > about the value of separate compilation. ... > What is your view of Ada-style separate compilation when compared to > that in other languages? The Ada way, and especially the source-based library system as used in GNAT and relatives, is the best form of separate (modular) compilation that I've ever used. My experience includes various implementations of Algol, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol, C, and C++, but not very much Java. > Do you find it useful in your own practice? I find it hard to imagine programming *without* separate compilation of modules, except with special super-fast (poorly optimizing) compilers of the "Turbo" variety. > Do you still use the "is separate" feature in a package body? I never use it. My subprograms are rarely long enough to make it useful (given that there is no compilation-speed advantage under GNAT), and I seldom use nested packages. Separate version tracking per subprogram (as mentioned by Dirk Heinrichs) could be an advantage, but I would prefer to get this from a subprogram-aware version control system, without the proliferation of source files that "separate" causes. -- Niklas Holsti Tidorum Ltd niklas holsti tidorum fi . @ .