Question about the term: "Translation Unit". Help me sound smart!

[Computergeek01]

So this term, Translation Unit, has been coming up in my reading more and more often, either that or I just haven't noticed it before. I understand what it is in concept but I wanted to ask if you guys would consider it to be synonymous with the object file or if it should be used in a more generic sense? For example, would "The linker takes the code from each of your source code files and the included headers, pre-processes it, and then outputs it into each of their own respective translation units." be technically and grammatically correct or is it too awkward?

Bonus Question: This just popped into my head as I was typing this. Would the functions from a statically linked shared object file (an .so or .dll file) be considered part of the resulting translation unit? Would the code from a dynamically linked shared object file be considered separate? Again I mean grammatically in regards to the term, I know that when one of these files is statically linked it's code gets written into the binary where as with a dynamic link it does not.

[Peter87]

No it's not the same. A translation unit consists of code (text). An object file is what you get after you have compiled the code.

[Computergeek01]

OK, so the translation unit is created before the object file is linked. I missed that little detail since from my perspective linking is all done in all appears as one step. That's good to note.

[jlb]

I think this link describes the term quite well. http://www.efnetcpp.org/wiki/Translation_unit

And from that link:

It consists of the contents of a single source file, plus the contents of any header files directly or indirectly included by it

A single translation unit can be compiled into an object file, library, or executable program.

Would the functions from a statically linked shared object file (an .so or .dll file) be considered part of the resulting translation unit?

No. A library (.a, .lib, .so, .dll) file is not actually compiled as part of the process. The translation unit is created by the pre-processor for the compile stage.

[Computergeek01]

@ jlb: Yeah, it's that second quote you have that threw me off, along with what I said earlier. I think I misread that as "A single translation unit can be compiled into an shared object file, library, or executable program." which is why I thought it was a generic term for the object file.

The second question was the result of my misunderstanding so discussing it becomes moot.

@ Everyone: Thank you for your help guys. This is the kind of thing that I screw up learning this stuff on my own. I'm, glad you guys caught it early.