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From: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Clair Grant on VMS code base
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2025 03:01:42 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
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In article <vts9sn$1sicb$1@dont-email.me>,
Dave Froble  <davef@tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>> [snip] These are
>> just examples of a handful that have _some_ language awareness.
>
>I don't know compilers, but, I'd think a compiler might have the best idea of 
>the statements, output code, and such.  Perhaps they just aren't set up to tell us?

As with all things, "it depends."  Consider C, for exmaples; IF
a C compiler has a separate preprocessor, then presumably the
compiler's frontend (which is in the best position to count,
e.g., statements/expressions or otherwise compute the cyclotomic
complexity of a program) would end up counting a lot of stuff
from headers, since those have already been expanded.  Multiply
by number of files, and you may have something that's wildly
off.

Something that attempts to tokenize without expanding headers
may fare better.

	- Dan C.