Re: separate compilation (was: A lesson for compiler warning writers)

xjam@cork.CS.Berkeley.EDU (The Crossjammer) writes:


      ... it is quite easy to enforce [separate compilation] consistency if you
      have a notion of an interface database (as John suggested). I don't
      remember how industrial strength it was, but CLU had exactly such a notion
      and the compiler would vigorously complain if interfaces in different
      modules did not match.


The CLU compiler I used while a student at MIT only maintained the
"interface database" for the lifetime of the compiler process. (The
compiler was an interactive program.. you fire it up, then typed in a
bunch of "compile x.clu", "compile y.clu", "compile z.clu" commands).


This broke down pretty badly if you tried to automate recompiles using
make, as it "forgot" all the cross-module state and assumed that
references to externals were all type-correct (much like C).
--

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