Path: utzoo!yunexus!maccs!cs3b3aj
From: cs3b3aj@maccs.McMaster.CA (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Turbo Pascal Question
Summary: why they use TPU instead of OBJ files
Message-ID: <2465@maccs.McMaster.CA>
Date: 20 Apr 89 23:42:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: maccs.2465
References: <18366@vax5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU>
Reply-To: cs3b3aj@maccs.UUCP (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster U., Hamilton, Ont., Can.
Lines: 21
Keywords:

In article <18366@vax5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU> chw@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Cindy M. Hannah-White) writes:
...
>"Public", for use by other modules. In Turbo, they have circumvented all of
>that with this weird "Unit" stuff, and the .TPU files. It LOOKS like the 
>.TPU file is what the old .OBJ file was, the "Interface" section corresponds
>to declaring the procedures as "public", and the "uses" is like saying that
>these things are "extrn". BUT now, because of this (proprietary??) format,
>I can't call the sub-routines from another language.

   The reason why they use TPU files (yes, they're proprietary ... does anyone
know their structure?) is to support strong typing.  Their format allows info
on your user-defined types and the types of your functions and arguments to
be used to check your other modules for type agreement.

   Borland also claims that TPU files make linking faster and that they also
allow smart linking (i.e. not linking in unused procedures and functions).
-- 
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! Stephen M. Dunn, cs3b3aj@maccs.McMaster.CA ! DISCLAIMER:           !
! This space left unintentionally blank - vi ! I'm only an undergrad !
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