RE: Bad coding standards

[Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com>]

In article <NBBBJNOMKDIAJALCEFIJCEDEEBAA.rleif@rleif.com>,
  comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org wrote:
> This might permit the development of an incremental compiler.

I don't see how this would help in the development of an
incremental compiler, since the problems here are internal
to the entire processing of the compiler, where extra
complexity is required in maintaining the data structures.

Whether it is worth doing smart incremental recompilation
(beyond what GNAT does, which just takes care of simple
lexical things like comment changes and layout changes) is
an interesting matter of debate. Our view from the GNAT world
is that the extra complexity of an incremental compiler will
slow compilation down enough that overall the incremental
processing will leave you behind.

Of course you can always find individual cases (one declaration
added to a fundamental spec) where the incremental compilation
will be faster, but on the other hand take the case of adding
a single declaration that can NOT be handled incrementally.
That will likely be slower with an incremental compiler, other
things being equal.

In any case, incremental compilation involves a heck of a lot
more than just identifying what is new :-) Ask the folks
at Rational and DEC who have put a lot of effort into this kind
of technology :-)


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