Cross referencing symbols (was: do you like?)

[D.JONES]

In article <831 at bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>, vu0112 at bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes:
> >worked for companies that tried to do such cross referencing
> >manually.  It was a very expensive overhead, and I'm sure they
> >got at least 90% of it correct.
> 
> At my last job, they had an excellent facility to cross-reference
> symbols to source code from the object modules.  It was a very large
> system, and this utility was invaluable, and eliminated the need for a
> lot of expensive, quickly out of date commenting.

	Here in AT&T UNICAD/IDS land,  we have a VERY extensive system for
tracking symbols.  Our project has 7000+ sourcefiles,  1,000,000+ lines of
code.   We have utilities that build several data-bases to provide up with
such information as:

	symbol "x" is defined in what subsystem/library/object file
	symbol "x" is referenced in what subsystem/library/object file
	object file "x" defines symbols "..."
	object file "x" references symbols "..."

	function "x" references symbol "y"
	function "x" references function "y"

This gives us the capability to generate link steps ( libraries, object files )
kind of `on the fly'.  It also includes building link "resolution files", auto-
matic undefined symbol stub generation,  and a bunch of other nifty things.

						Dean S Jones
						AT&T BL
						HO 1K-426
						(201) 949-4256
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