On 1/14/2011 11:44 AM, Achilleas Margaritis wrote:
Oh yes it does. Have you seen a Qt source code file? we are talking about some comments being many pages long. Multiply that with multiple inclusions of the same header, add lots of files, and you get the idea.
There are lots of specs in the Ada run time that have thousands of lines of comments (*), they cost nothing measureable to read or parse. You are making claims here without any data whatever to back up these claims. We have extensive data that backs up what I am saying (at one point we seriously considered a version of the Ada run time that would strip all comments because of this concern, the Ada specs are read over and over again just like C headers, but we found it did not make a measurable difference). I am perfectly happy to discuss real data if you have it, but not vague non-quantiative claims. For an example in the ada run time, have a look at the file g-spipat.ads, just the tutorial on pattern matching is over 600 lines long, and that's even before the comments on the specific routines provided. I really think you do your whole position a disservice by trying to argue everyone into agreeing with your viewpoint on C headers. You are not going to succeed in that argument, and you distract from what should be your main point, which is that for a lot of programmers, headers are an unnecessary nuisance, and that for those programmers, automatic generation might be helpful. You do not have to convince all the world to join this group!
