Library standardization

[Robert Fraser]

Hans W. Uhlig wrote:
> Walter Bright wrote:
>> Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
>>> 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.
>>
>> That's right, the compiler just uses the .class file.
>>
>>> 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.. 
>>
>> Yes, it is certainly possible to embed the information in the .obj 
>> file. But it's kind of "why bother". Furthermore, in the future, the 
>> 1:1 correspondence between .obj files and source files may go away.
> 
> That would probably be a good thing but why can a obj file not have its 
> "implementation header" inside the object. It would bloat the object a 
> little but having it in there would allow for better 
> optimization(through compartmentalizing, limited loading and such) and 
> the same non header requirement as java.

Then the compiler needs to parse object files