Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple's Module proposal to replace headers for C-based languages [pdf]

llvm.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 187 posts

Re: Apple's Module proposal to replace headers for C-based languages [pdf]

#2

Post by _djo_ »

This looks promising, aside from being long overdue. Header files have always been one of the more annoying parts of C/C++/Obj-C development.

The important bit is that the proposal's ideas for making the transition easier are good and make it seem like this may get traction where similar efforts have failed before. That Doug Gregor and other LLVM/Clang/LLDB developers are already working on the Clang implementation is even better. At the very least we may see this in Objective-C.

Re: Apple's Module proposal to replace headers for C-based languages [pdf]

#3

Post by gte910h »

_djo_ wrote: post #2

This looks promising, aside from being long overdue. Header files have always been one of the more annoying parts of C/C++/Obj-C development. The important bit is that the proposal's ideas for making the transition easier are good and make it seem like this may get traction where similar efforts have failed before. That Doug Gregor and other LLVM/Clang/LLDB developers are already working on the Clang implementation i…

Objective-C is certainly important, but C++ and Objective C++ is where I think this is super important to see. I don't care which solution wins (yet, I might after more inspection/convincing), we just need A solution, and one that works for some older projects with little work.

Re: Apple's Module proposal to replace headers for C-based languages [pdf]

#5

Post by tptacek »

gte910h wrote: post #3
_djo_ wrote: post #2

This looks promising, aside from being long overdue. Header files have always been one of the more annoying parts of C/C++/Obj-C development. The important bit is that the proposal's ideas for making the transition easier are good and make it seem like this may get traction where similar efforts have failed before. That Doug Gregor and other LLVM/Clang/LLDB developers are already working on the Clang implementation i…

Objective-C is certainly important, but C++ and Objective C++ is where I think this is super important to see. I don't care which solution wins (yet, I might after more inspection/convincing), we just need A solution, and one that works for some older projects with little work.

It's been awhile since I did large scale C++, but I remember precision with header file inclusion was a big deal in C++ projects, to the point where you'd mangle your class structure if it'd keep a cascade of header dependencies out of a set of source files. It looks like this module proposal would work at cross purposes to that effort.

Re: Apple's Module proposal to replace headers for C-based languages [pdf]

#7

Post by Someone »

_djo_ wrote: post #2

This looks promising, aside from being long overdue. Header files have always been one of the more annoying parts of C/C++/Obj-C development. The important bit is that the proposal's ideas for making the transition easier are good and make it seem like this may get traction where similar efforts have failed before. That Doug Gregor and other LLVM/Clang/LLDB developers are already working on the Clang implementation i…

I think it is promising and long overdue, too. It also is clear to me that this will win, because Apple pushes it into LLVM, and has a head start at it.

On the other hand: if someone would do the equivalent to their browser, people would call it fragmentation.

It will be interesting to see how gcc reacts to this. If this decreases compilation times significantly, I think they will have to follow suit.

Re: Apple's Module proposal to replace headers for C-based languages [pdf]

#10

Post by kibwen »

pubby wrote: post #6

Everyone wants modules but nobody can agree on how they should behave. This is why they weren't included in C(++)11.

Speaking as someone who doesn't follow the development of those specs, can you elaborate? What behaviors are contentious?
Post reply on HN