Re: compilation time [was Re: Magnavox consultant]

[bobduff@dsd.camb.inmet.com (Bob Duff)]

In article <EACHUS.94Oct24111507@spectre.mitre.org>,
Robert I. Eachus <eachus@spectre.mitre.org> wrote:
> ...I have no idea yet what the numbers
>are for 9X.  Child units both make counting more difficult, and mean
>that there may be significantly more with clauses in the same (Ada 83)
>design, because massive packages have been decomposed into subsystems
>with many child packages.  Should you count an entire subsystem as one
>"with"?  I don't know, I have trouble enough in Ada 83 eliminating
>double counting.

Note also that each child unit will tend to have *fewer* with_clauses,
since the child is implementing only a part of the whole abstraction,
and will presumably need to with fewer things.  I don't know how this
will affect the overall numbers.

Another interesting point is that with-ing a big thing is worse than
with-ing a small thing, in terms of understandability.  Child units
allow a client to with just a few parts of a given abstraction, instead
of the whole thing, which might increase the number of with_clauses, but
decrease the amount of with-ed "stuff".

[I hate using the word "with" as verb.  :-( ]

- Bob
-- 
Bob Duff                                bobduff@inmet.com
Oak Tree Software, Inc.
Ada 9X Mapping/Revision Team (Intermetrics, Inc.)