separate compilation

separate compilation

(programming)A feature of most modern programming languagesthat allows each program module to be compiled on its own toproduce an object file which the linker can later combinewith other object files and libraries to produce the finalexecutable. Separate compilation avoids processing all thesource code every time the program is built, thus savingdevelopment time. The object files are designed to requireminimal processing at link time. They can also be collectedtogether into libraries and distributed commercially withoutgiving away source code (though they can be disassembled).

Examples of the output of separate compilation are C objectfiles (extension ".o") and Java ".class" files.