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,XPRIO autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,aea4cc77526f5e4a,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!out02a.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!in02.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!in03.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!newshub.sdsu.edu!newscon04.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.net!newsdst01.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr13.news.prodigy.net.POSTED!4988f22a!not-for-mail From: Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Separate Compilation in Programming Languages X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 70.134.114.51 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr13.news.prodigy.net 1203701733 ST000 70.134.114.51 (Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:35:33 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:35:33 EST Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com X-UserInfo1: Q[R_@SBEQJV]SQ@[EZOD]_\@VR]^@B@MCPWZKB]MPXHZUSAANVUEAE[YETZPIWWI[FCIZA^NBFXZ_D[BFNTCNVPDTNTKHWXKB@X^B_OCJLPZ@ET_O[G\XSG@E\G[ZKVLBL^CJINM@I_KVIOR\T_M_AW_M[_BWU_HFA_]@A_A^SGFAUDE_DFTMQPFWVW[QPJN Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:35:33 GMT Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19979 Date: 2008-02-22T17:35:33+00:00 List-Id: Recently, I have been engaged in some conversations with colleagues about the value of separate compilation. This is one of my favorite features in Ada. In fact, as nearly as I can tell, none of the other popular languages includes this feature in as well-developed a form as Ada. Java has no separate compilation at all. Nor does Eiffel. C++ has a rather kludgy form that is sometimes worse than none at all. Modula includes a form of separate compilation, but requires opaque types. Older languages such as PL/I, COBOL, and Fortran are pretty useless in this respect. This morning, after an especially interesting argument about this feature and, "Why would anyone want to do such a thing?" style questions, I decided to approach this forum. What is your view of Ada-style separate compilation when compared to that in other languages? Do you find it useful in your own practice? Do you still use the "is separate" feature in a package body? For my own programs, I find it helpful as a way to manage dependencies when there are a lot of library units. Also, UML does not support a capability for modeling separate compilation, and that is a bit frustrating when trying to model a fine-grained design. If you wish, you may reply to my Naval Postgraduate School email: rdriehle@nps.edu or my personal email, laoxiaohai@juno.com . I rarely use this adaworks account for email anymore since I am no longer actively pursuing Ada consulting anymore. Richard Riehle