Origin of term 'Big Inhale'

Robert R. Henry <rrh@skagit.cs.washington.edu>
Tue, 9 May 89 17:29:42 PDT

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Origin of term 'Big Inhale' rrh@skagit.cs.washington.edu (Robert R. Henry) (1989-05-09)
Re: Origin of term 'Big Inhale' rts@snodgrass.cs.unc.edu (1989-05-10)
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Date: Tue, 9 May 89 17:29:42 PDT
From: Robert R. Henry <rrh@skagit.cs.washington.edu>

I am interested in finding the origin of the term "Big Inhale".


A "Big Inhale" is what a compiler does when it encounters an
import(modula2) or use(Ada) clause, and has to get the definitions
exported by the named module and extract and retain those that are
going to be used. Thus the first thing that a compiler typically does is to
inhale all of the definitions, perhaps to never use them again.


I first saw the term in a longish technical report from some University
located in Norway. The TR described the problem and describe some ways
to alleviate the problem. Alas, I can no longer find the citation,
and have not seem this term used elsewhere.


Thanks,
Robert Henry
University of Washington
[It's new to me. Perhaps it's a translation from the original Norwegian. -John]
[From Robert R. Henry <rrh@skagit.cs.washington.edu>]
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