The ugly "includes hack" seems ridiculous today, but in the 90's such techniques were the only way to compile large C/C++ systems in a reasonable time. Messing

The ugly "includes hack" seems ridiculous today, but in the 90's such techniques were the only way to compile large C/C++ systems in a reasonable time. Messing with includes and reducing file dependencies while less important nowadays are underappreciated elements of software design (called physical design as opposed to logical design). For better historical context see: John Lakos - "Large scale C++ software design" (1996)