🚀 go-pugleaf

From tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael Zehr):
> There have been a couple of good comments about using software
> components, but so far most of them have been along the lines of
> "such-and-such a language does this."  Could you describe
> *how* the language provides both efficiency and quick building time?  
> 
> For example, one person mentioned Ada's "re-binding" of
> executables.  What does this do?  

    Briefly, Ada provides a number of excellent facilities for
    partitioning a problem into modular subsystems, in order to
    facilitate the construction of the subunits in an independent
    manner.  One such facility is known as "separate compilation",
    whereby first the interface to a procedure or function is described:

      procedure Handle_This_Task (With_Parameter : in out Parameter_Type)
         is separate;

    Now we can compile the code which contains this specification 
    without ever actually implementing the Handle_This_Task procedure.
    Eventually, before we bind everything into an executable, a procedure
    must actually be coded to satisfy this specification, but we can 
    defer it until the rest of the code has been written and debugged.
    Moreover, if we wish to change something in that procedure's code,
    we can change and recompile only that procedure, without having to
    recompile the entire system.

    Another mechanism is the "package".  One use of packages is to
    describe specifications (*compilable* specifications) for subsystems
    which collectively interact to form a larger system.  Once the
    high-level specifications have been compiled together, the information
    flows across the subsystem interfaces have been verified for completeness
    and consistency.  The project can then be "farmed out" to individual
    programmers, who will implement each subsystem independently of what
    everyone else is doing.  The package specification forms a contract
    between the implementor and the other project members; if everyone
    fulfulls their end of the deal, then the entire system is guaranteed
    to work as far as information flows are concerned.  The implementor
    constructs a package body, which is said to be "compiled against" the
    package specification, or "spec".  So everyone goes about their
    business, implementing and testing their individual subsystems, 
    (testing of subsystems can be accomplished by first developing them
    in temporary isolation from the system, and later compiling them 
    against the system specs) and finally when everyone is done, the 
    compiled units are *bound* together into an executable for integrated
    testing.  Now suppose that a problem is found in one subsystem.  That
    problem is corrected, and only that subsystem (and possibly only a
    small portion of that subsystem, if the subsystem has been internally
    partitioned as well) will require recompilation.  Once the affected
    area of the system is recompiled, then the system is bound once again
    into a new executable for further testing.  The technical mechanism by
    which this is accomplished is known as the "library" system; each program
    is a member of some program library or sublibrary, and when a program
    (or "program unit", or "unit") is compiled into a library, the library
    stores some intermediate form(s) of the program.  Upon recompilation,
    the library simply updates its intermediate form(s).  If there is an
    optimization flag turned on, then the library stores special information 
    which will be used by the optimizer during the binding phase.  Now when 
    binding occurs, the binder scans through the libraries for the desired
    program units, and binds them together into a piece of executable code,
    perhaps exploiting the knowledge accumulated during the compilation
    phase in order to optimize the executable code.  Although packages 
    present boundaries to the programmer, an optimizer can corrupt any and 
    all boundaries in pursuit of a more efficient executable, if global 
    optimization is desired.  Normally the work of optimization is not
    done until very near the end, during or after execution profiling. 

    The library system is also important in that it permits the reuse of
    code (a software component needs to be compiled into only one library,
    and many other users can then make use of it); it also facilitates
    the tracking of the impact of a modification, in that a change in the
    specification of a component which is used by other users will require
    the recompilation of the relevant areas of code which made use of the
    modified unit.  This enables the rapid identification of the impact of
    the modification, and allows the tracking of change as it spreads 
    throughout the system.  There is an automatic recompilation facility 
    which can be used to automatically recompile all dependent units if it is
    known that the change will not require changes to the dependent units;
    automatic recompilation will also identify (in the form of compilation
    errors) specific places in which the modified specification impacts the
    dependent units (e.g., a dependent unit's attempt to call a procedure
    which was just removed from the specification).

> Someone also mentioned being able to reuse components in different
> languages.  I agree that this is crucial in combining efficiency with
> productivity.  So far, my experience with mixed-language coding is
> that it is very easy on Vaxes (becuase of the forced procedure
> interface of the CALLS instruction) but extremely difficult on IBM
> mainframes (because there is no standard calling sequence).  Does
> anyone have any experience in mixed-language coding on newer RISC
> machines?  Do compiler witers stick to "standardized" calling
> mechanisms?

    Ada makes direct provision for interfacing to other languages; 
    the only implementation dependencies are whether or not the
    compiler you are using supports calls to that particular language.
    Typically, compilers support calls to at least several other 
    languages, and the means of use is via the standardized 
    interfacing mechanism defined by the Ada programming language.
    Special provision is also made for machine code insertions;
    as with interfacing to other languages, there is direct support 
    for machine code insertion in the Ada language, and the only
    question is whether the particular compiler you are using 
    provides the service.  Although the compilers are not required to
    provide machine code insertion either, many if not most of them do so. 

  
    Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu