[Insight-developers] Long compile times

[Blezek, Daniel J (CRD)]

Hi all,

<Disclaimer>
This is not a rant.  I'm a bit frustrated, and am looking for some help.
</Disclaimer>

  I've started using ITK on a project in a serious way.  I'd sort of stopped using ITK a while ago,
and have been impressed with how much more mature the code has become in the last 6-8 months, kudos
to Bill Lorensen, and Jim Miller and everyone else for keeping on top of the quality issues.

  The biggest issue I have with ITK is the tremendously long compile times!  Since every .h includes
the corresponding .txx, I can have 4 source files in my project that include any given ITK .h file,
and I end up compiling 3/4 of ITK for each of my project's source files!  So even a slight change to
my project takes several minutes of compile time due to the templates in ITK.  This makes ITK painful
to use in order to get anything done in any reasonable time!  One thing I would ask is for all
developers to only include the bare minimum of header files you need to get your filter working.

  My question to the developer's is this: is there some way for me to instantiate a reasonable subset
of ITK into the libraries?  For instance, I'm largely interested in 3-4 datatypes, and (for the
moment) only 3D data.  Is it possible to pop these into a Templates directory, like vnl, and have
them become part of the library, rather than compiled each and every time I include the .h?

It's very frustrating to work with Insight in a practical way.

-dan

--
Daniel Blezek, Ph.D.
blezek@crd.ge.com
Visualization and Computer Vision Lab, Imaging Technologies
GE Corporate Research & Development