The only problem is that the cross-references may be out of sync. This is usually not a serious barrier to readability. Another gcc analogy is a dependence on

The only problem is that the cross-references may be out of sync. This is usually not a serious barrier to readability. Another gcc analogy is a dependence on a third-party library whose API keeps changing. Then you'd have to run gcc once to regenerate the library, and once on the client using the library. Peeling that back a level, the analogy is between files like libfoo.a and foo_defs.h (for gcc) and files like section1.aux and document.bbl (for latex).