Yes, over here in the spirit world (a.k.a. Oxford University) I do try to
listen to the plaintive cries of the souls of the living.
I have considered something like this twice or so. I may yet consider
again. The problems are twofold: one, the format is very complicated
in terms of cross-references, which makes linking a non-trivial proposition;
two, it would be a major, major destabilisation of a currently reasonably
sound compiler. There are lots of subsidiary problems too (the library
compiles differently according to constant settings; some sort of "make"
utility would need to be built in, and making it work portably could be
a real nightmare, etc.).
Also, it wouldn't save quite as much time as appears. It would make the
compilation of tiny games very quick; but the time saving on really
substantial games would be nowhere near as dramatic. I do have to wait
2 minutes for "Jigsaw" to compile, but that's not the end of the world,
and it is pretty huge.
Well... a pusillanimous sort of post. I may yet reconsider.
Graham Nelson