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3.2 libraries and modules
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3.2.5 scoping
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3.2.5.1 How does a client handle scoping clashes?
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Patrick D.
Logan
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Many of the C++ libraries I can think off hand use prefixes
in their names. This is essentially an ad hoc solution.
(What if two vedors choose the same prefix?) And not very
pretty.
[...]
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Kim Barrett
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This problem was considered and dealt with in the design of
Dylan.
Libraries are the place where the regression is terminated.
- A provider's library contains a define library form that
names the modules exported from the library.
- A client's library contains a define library form that
names the libraries that are used, including the
modules that are imported.
(With module renaming allowed, just like variable
renaming when importing variables into a module, in
order to resolve name conflicts).
While a define library form contains a name for the library,
that name isn't actually important. Specifically, the library
names in the client's imports don't really have anything to
do with the provider's library name. Rather, the association
between library names in the client's imports and the
provider's product is made in some extra-lingual
implementation-defined manner. This mechanism can't
really be portable because it necessarily deals with such
issues as filesystems and their naming conventions (we
could have bumped the problem up to an implementation-
defined mechanism for mapping from "generic, portable"
filenames to actual filenames, but didn't), and so on.
We intentionally made no attempt to specify the specifics of
such a mechanism in order to provide as much latitude as
possible to implementors in this area. However, just to
make it a little clearer, here are sketches of a couple of
possible ways it could be done:
- Edit a standard configuration file associated with the
client library, specifying the mapping from library
names used by the client to the filename where the
used library is found.
- Drag and drop the icon for the used library onto the icon
for the client library.
All of this is in the DIRM, though perhaps not as obvious as
it could be.
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