Oh, my mistake, I forgot I was on an HP3000.  Usually, other operating
systems require me
to compile the code to match the operating system.  Otherwise,(and this is
an always) I will
get unexpected results from the code....

Another plus for HP's backward compatibility.....


-----Original Message-----
From: Gavin Scott [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 3:35 PM
To: Born, Ken; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [HP3000-L] Determine compilation / link in executable
pascal program


Ken writes:
> I have an executable program that has never been compiled in a long time.
> We are upgrading to 6.0 and I want to have the source code
> compiled to match the os it will be running on.

Except in some cases where OS provided code gets linked into a program
(statically linked C programs for example) there's generally no issue with
programs "matching" an operating system, so there's no good reason to do
what Ken's asking (or at least not for that reason).

A more reasonable statement would be something like: We'd like to recompile
this program to take advantage of any bug fixes to the compiler since it was
last compiled.  Of course if the program has been working fine for a long
time, then chances are that even if there were compiler bug fixes, they
would not make any difference for this program, and in fact one could
conceivably run into a new problem with the compiler as a result of
recompiling.

Another reason to recompile might be to take advantages of performance
benefits resulting from improved compiler optimization in the newer
compiler.

I don't know how much the Pascal/iX compiler has changed in either quality
or code generation in recent years.  I would not expect the differences to
be very significant.

Of course recompiling programs on a somewhat regular basis can be good
because it forces you to actually have the source code and procedures for
doing that compilation, so that some day when you're *forced* to recompile,
you'll know that you can actually do so.

G.

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