Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!cunews!cognos!garym From: garym@cognos.uucp@uunet.uu.net (Gary Murphy) Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog Subject: Re: PDC prolog gripe/question Message-ID: Date: 14 Oct 90 18:31:02 GMT References: <90285.232430F0O@psuvm.psu.edu> <145400@kean.ucs.mun.ca> <90287.103007F0O@psuvm.psu.edu> Sender: garym@cognos.UUCP Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada Lines: 25 In-reply-to: F0O@psuvm.psu.edu's message of 14 Oct 90 14:30:07 GMT It gets worse: the project declaration is used to identify the .SYM file used by all the modules. If one file changes, the SYM may be changed, and this will require recompilation of all modules. By poking around with a hex editor, I did find that the .SYM didn't always change, but unfortunately, there is no way to ensure that it didn't. This almost totally cancels any benefit of using a command-line compiler within a MAKEFILE script. This project business has been with this prolog since the beginning. One one hand, it is commendable, as it does allow their WAM'ish compiler to easily attach to C language .LIB's and .OBJ's (unlike Arity et al where the interface is much more awkward), and it was one of the first prologs to address the 'flatness' of prolog predicate scope. On the other hand, it totally destroys any chance of code-reuse through building .LIB's of predicates (unless all are declared to be 'language c'). Like everyone else, I don't like the 'project' declaration, but I really can't see any way they could have avoided it. -- o | Gary Murphy |------------------------------------------------------------------------ o | uunet!mitel!cunews!cognos!garym garym@cognos.uucp@uunet.uu.net | Cognos Inc. P.O. Box 9707 Ottawa K1G 3N3 (613) 738-1338 x5537 o | "There are many things which do not concern the process" - Joan of Arc