Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchem!tps
From: tps@sdchem.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Function prototypes (was: miscellaneous unrelated stuff)
Message-ID: <733@sdchema.sdchem.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-May-87 17:27:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdchema.733
Posted: Wed May  6 17:27:18 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 8-May-87 04:35:08 EDT
References: <18346@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <7973@utzoo.UUCP>
Sender: news@sdchem.UUCP
Reply-To: tps@sdchemf.UUCP (Tom Stockfisch)
Organization: UC San Diego
Lines: 31

In article <839@kodak.UUCP> grodberg@kodak.UUCP (Jeremy Grodberg) writes:

>In article <731@sdchema.sdchem.UUCP> tps@sdchemf.UUCP (Tom Stockfisch) writes:

>>The way I handle (keeping function prototypes up to date without having make 
>do complete recompiles) is to have my declaration/prototype header file contain
>>*only* declarations/prototypes, and then I DON'T MENTION IT IN THE MAKEFILE.

>    There is an other way you mess up using Tom's method, which is a serious
>drawback.... For example, if you have function foo that calls function bar, and
>change bar's type from float to double, you won't hear about the fact that
>you forgot to change foo's function call until you have some other reason 
>to recompile foo.

It is very unlikely that you would not change foo() if you changed bar().  For
instance, if you change bar() from float to double, you will probably change
foo to double as well.  If you don't change anything in foo.c, then you will
have to remember to 'rm foo.o' before the re-make.
When I make a bunch of type changes (which occurs very infrequently) I
sometimes 'rm *.o' just to be safe.  

I don't agree that my method has a "serious drawback" when I have used it for
several years in working with makefiles, I rarely waste time doing recompiling
all source files, and I have to spend very little time thinking about when an
object file will become truly out of date.




|| Tom Stockfisch, UCSD Chemistry	tps%chem@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu
					or  sdcsvax!sdchem!tps