Library standardization

[Jarrett Billingsley]

"Lars Noschinski" <lars-2008-1 at usenet.noschinski.de> wrote in message 
news:20080419230108.GB7752 at lars.home.noschinski.de...
>* Janice Caron <caron800 at googlemail.com> [08-04-19 19:15]:
>>On 19/04/2008, Sean Kelly <sean at invisibleduck.org> wrote:
>>> > So you want the ability to import a module, but not have to rebuild
>>>  > dependent files if that module changes?
>>>  > Good luck with that one.
>>>
>>> Apparently you've never used C/C++.  I apologize or the 
>>> misunderstanding.
>>
>>Touché. But I was talking about D.
>>
>>OK, so you're basically saying you want D to have header files, like
>>C. Fair enough. The prospect doesn't thrill me, but I would be
>>intrigued to know how other many people want this.
>
> How does Java handle this case? They also do not have header files there.

As far as I know, a compiled Java .class file can work in place of the 
source file from which it was generated.  The .class file contains all the 
declarations in a table, so the compiler doesn't have to parse any code.

The eqivalent isn't really possible with any current implementation of D, 
since all D compilers now use typical object file formats instead of a 
custom format.  I mean, I suppose it's _possible_ to embed some information 
into the object file and have the compiler read it out, but I have no idea 
what that would entail or if all object file formats would support that, 
etc..