An Ada-like separate compilation style in C

Abstract

The Ada programming language's modularity allows for stepwise refinement in software engineering. Effective separate compilation is crucial in most large systems, including those written in C. An approach to implementing effective modularity in C, modeled after Ada, is explored. The concept of language-independent modularity, and the possibility of implementing it in a given "entry level" language is introduced. An example, a simple sentence parser, is developed in C using this concept. The technique, called A/SC2, may easily be extended to other programming systems and languages. Modeling modularity is a useful design tool.