RE: Importing items used in MODULE-COMPLIANCE and AGENT-CAPABILITIES

["Presuhn, Randy" <Randy_Presuhn@bmc.com>]

Hi -

> From: David T. Perkins [mailto:dperkins@dsperkins.com]
> Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 16:10
> To: C. M. Heard; Mreview (E-mail)
> Subject: Re: Importing items used in MODULE-COMPLIANCE and
> AGENT-CAPABILITIES
...
> Consider the following...
...

The presence of the IMPORTs should neither help nor hinder
a compiler in this example, but it could be a big help
for a human trying to get a quick understandanding of
the inter-module dependencies.

...
> For MIB compilers that simply skip over the MODULE-COMPLIANCE and
> AGENT-CAPABILITIES, leaving out the IMPORTS is a big win!
...

I don't see how.  A compiler still needs to be able to
cope with IMPORTs, including those of "unreferenced" symbols.
Remember, the proposal was not to REQUIRE the IMPORTs, only
to RECOMMEND.  I think the rationale about "helping" some
compilers is a red herring.  If that were the *sole* rationale,
then the RECOMMENDation would more properly be a REQUIREment.

From my perspective, the value of including these in IMPORTs
is to humans, rather than compilers.

 ------------------------------------------------------
 Randy Presuhn          BMC Software, Inc.  1-3141
 randy_presuhn@bmc.com  2141 North First Street
 Tel: +1 408 546-1006   San José, California 95131  USA
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 My opinions and BMC's are independent variables.
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