RSanders@USGS2-MULTICS.ARPA (03/01/85)
Scene: VAX 750 + 4.2 BSD. DI3000 device independent graphics package (~160,000 lines of Fortran, hundreds (?thousands) of subroutines). A hungry programmer population about to start developing lots of application programs - each of which will need N versions of a.out for N device drivers (where N is about 10). Typical a.out sizes for trivial programs - 400K. Next scene: Disks 99% full. All of cpu cycles absorbed by ld steps of f77. System manager crying in corner. I've looked at the dynamic loading code recently re-transmitted by Patrick Powell - doesn't seem to help the combo of Fortran (no function pointers) and zillions of entry points. Besides, even more cpu cycles absorbed by ld (trade off for disk space). Anyone have any bright ideas? -- Rex RSanders@Denver (milnet) sometimes I really miss Multics.