Too many WITH's? (was: Perl script to show dependencies)

[adam@irvine.com (Adam Beneschan)]

In article <m2lod09lv8.fsf@waporo.muc.de> Rolf Ebert <re@waporo.muc.de> writes:

 >I was not interested in the dependancies which concern the compiler, but
 >in the logical dependancies between the modules.  I wanted to apply the
 >rule of a thumb saying "if there are too many with clauses (~> 8), think
 >about your design".  

Just curious--where does this rule of thumb come from?  Also, does it
apply to Ada 83, or just Ada 95?  (It does make a difference, since
tagged types and child packages could make it easier to break down a
module into smaller cohesive units that don't have as many
dependencies.) 

Naturally, I do follow this rule of thumb literally, since I'm always
thinking about my design anyway regardless of how many WITH clauses
there are.  :) Seriously, though, I'd never heard that having more
than eight WITH clauses was either undesirable in itself, nor that it
was an indicator of some undesirable feature of the design that needed
looking into.  (I think I have heard a similar rule of thumb in
connection with "top-down design", but that dates from a time when the
only modules were subprograms, not packages, so I wonder whether the
rule should still apply.)

                                -- thanks, Adam