From:	"A.Appleyard" <A DOT APPLEYARD AT fs2 DOT mt DOT umist DOT ac DOT uk>
Organization:	Materials Science Centre
To:	DJGPP AT DELORIE DOT COM
Date:	Thu, 16 May 1996 09:07:27 GMT
Subject:	Re: Unused functions
Message-ID:	<2D1D787C03@fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk>

A.Appleyard wrote wanting djgpp's linker to be able to say which entry points
are (1) only used within the same file, so he can declare them `static', (2)
not used at all, so he can delete them.

  dj AT delorie DOT com (DJ Delorie) replied:-
>  Most code falls into one of two categories:
> 1. Part of a library. Manually split the code into many sources once, and
>    every user benefits.
> 2. Part of an application. Hey, you're going to use them all anyway or you
>    wouldn't have written them, right?

Re (2), big applications (like a text editor called AAEMACS that I wrote in
Gnu C++) get altered and re-altered and unused matter is bound to accumulate.
-Wall shows unused variables within a function, and that is very useful; but
how to easily find unused functions and unused global-level declarations?
Dividing the source form into infinity tiny files is too fiddly and awkward.

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