Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!ptsfa!well!pokey
From: pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Question Re: Configuration Management
Message-ID: <5257@well.UUCP>
Date: 18 Feb 88 07:36:41 GMT
References: <497@aimt.UUCP>
Organization: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric, Ada Lovelace Cabal
Lines: 22

In the referenced message, breck@aimt.UUCP (Robert Breckinridge Beatie) wrote:
> Now I've never heard this recommendation before.  Nor have I ever seen
> (non-trivial) software that only had one 'call interface' per source file.
>
> So how about it?  What horrible CM problems does having more than one
> 'call interface' per source file cause?

One problem peculiar to Unix is caused by the brain-damaged library
system.  Let's say you have a .c file with 20 marginally related
routines in it.  You make it into a library, then write a program
that uses only one of those routines.  When you link it, guess what
happens?  All 20 routines get pulled into your executable.

Until someone fixes this, perhaps with a utility to dissect an object
file into N separate object modules, it makes sense to put as few
routines as is reasonable into each source file.
---
Jef

              Jef Poskanzer   jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa   ...well!pokey
 "She was a girly girl and they were true men, the lords of creation, but she
        pitted her wits against them and she won." -- Cordwainer Smith