Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!zeus!amadeus!karenc From: karenc@amadeus.TEK.COM (Karen Cate;1502;92-734;LP=A;60kC) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Question Re: Configuration Management Message-ID: <3167@zeus.TEK.COM> Date: 23 Feb 88 21:24:56 GMT References: <497@aimt.UUCP> <2640@ihlpe.ATT.COM> <188@dinl.mmc.UUCP> Sender: news@zeus.TEK.COM Reply-To: karenc@amadeus.UUCP (Karen Cate) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 36 Keywords: configuration management, software design In article <188@dinl.mmc.UUCP> hull@dinl.UUCP (Jeff Hull) writes: > >Why would you (ever) want to put more than one "procedure" in a file >anyway. Now that we have and similar utilities, it is very >simple to (re-)compile programs contained in many files, so why not >put one procedure in one file? >-- >Jeff Hull ...!hao!dinl!hull >1544 S. Vaughn Circle 303-750-3538 It was great when it all begaaaaan, >Aurora, CO 80012 I was a regular faaaan, .... I assume by "procedure" you are referring to a single "C" function (or its equivalent). I think this is another case of the law of diminishing returns. If you have three procedures, each at least a "screen-ful" long, then, yes, putting them in separate files makes sense. However, when you start looking at fourty, or so, procedures (especially when most of them are only a few lines long), individual files start working against you. Add in complex interrelationships, and a liberal dose of global variables for good measure, and you have a sure fire recipe for a massive headache. Say, for instance, you want to change the passed parameters of one of your procedures that is called often. Instead of being able to use vi to find all occurances for you, you will have to edit each file indiviually. And instead of changing one file, you have now changed dozens in one fell swoop. Documenting that wouldn't be any fun either. My projects, so far, have been relatively autonomous, so I haven't had to document changes as rigorously as others may have had to (all I've been required to do is document the revisions I check into RCS). But, then again, every once in a while, I've been known to use a goto... Karen A. Cate Tektronix Inc, Beaverton, OR tektronix!amadeus!karenc