New Issue: Reduce size of chpl__header.h for C back-end?

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19418, "bradcray", "Reduce size of chpl__header.h for C back-end?", "2022-03-11T01:43:04Z"

While looking at C compilation times this week, we've noticed how
much slower --incremental can be, where we expect that a big
source of overhead is re-parsing chpl__header.h for each .c
file that's generated. This issue postulates that with some minor
efforts, we could probably improve this situation significantly.
Specifically, chpl__header.h was used as a kitchen sink header
for expediency early in the project's history, and seems likely
that it could be improved, particularly as we deal with more large,
multi-module codes.

As some examples:

  • chpl__header.h predated any notion of private, so currently
    all private symbols are put into it even though they are not
    available outside of their own modules.
  • It seems as though chpl__header.h could be split into a .h
    file per module without too much difficulty, where modules
    would only #include the headers for any modules whose
    contents they need to refer to.

What else might we find if we look through its contents for
simple programs?