🚀 go-pugleaf

From jdarcy@multimax.encore.com (Jeff d'Arcy):
>>    As far as recompilation is concerned, you can make use of Ada's
>>    separate compilation facility to achieve this directly.  I don't
>>    do this because it would be a pain to have things scattered into
>>    umpteen different files, and I have no idea why you would consider
>>    this to be desirable. 
> 
> When you have multiple software engineers working on the same major
> component, smaller files reduce contention for the sources, which
> (quite obviously) can improve overall productivity.

   The basic Ada strategy is to divide things into various packages
   (for example, each ADT would have its own package).  Now since 
   the implementation of a package can be recompiled without any
   recompilation of anything depending on the package's specification,
   there is no source code contention if one person is assigned to a
   given package, which is generally the case.  If a package is too
   big for one person to handle, it most likely should be rethought
   and broken down into more than one package.

   One could also use separate compilation to take the separation
   down to the level of each procedure or function within the
   package, but this is really going hog-wild.  At this point,
   the hassle of trying to locate source files exceeds any benefit
   which might exist, and since a package is intended to be a very
   manageable unit there wouldn't be any real benefit anyway. 


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu