Working on huge projects

I have never worked on a huge project, as I am still a student and my programs rarely gets bigger then 5.000 lines. When Im programming I am constantly compiling my program. I do it to make sure that the new code is working correctly, to check that the new code did not break any older code and I find it to be an easy way of finding syntax errors.

But, when reading articles I often hear about compile times much higher then an hour. How do people work then? Do people only compile over night and just hope it is all working when they get back?

Regards,

First of all you could structure your program in modules, so you don't have to recompile everything. Only the module you've been working on.

1. when you working on 1 file - just compile this file instead of whole project
2. when modifying header - make sure it is included only when needed - so no unneded code is recompiled
3. the above statement of Magos - part code in modules/libraries and recompile only library which includes current file
4. rebuild all only before final release of the project to testing... Rest of the time use regular build. Make sure to setup correct project dependencies, so your build will always correct. Prevent cyclic dependencies