[Caml-list] hierarchical modules

[John Carr <jfc@MIT.EDU>]

> The '-pack' mechanism was introduced in 3.06 to support separate
> compilation of the submodules.  Since it is a recent extension, it's
> not yet stable enough to be used widely, but I expect this to change
> with time.

I meant to send this a long time ago, but I forgot.  These are three
reasons, from least to most important, why I think the -pack feature
implemented in ocaml 3.06 is not sufficient for hierarchical modules.

1. Compiled-in module and file names used for backtrace and assert are
not fully qualified when using -pack.  I have seen several ambiguous
backtraces when I used the same module name in two container modules
(i.e. used the same file name in two directories).

2. A module can not be -packed into a container module of the same name.

3. I want a separate interface file for the container module.  There
are two reasons for this:

(a) I want to have global, package, and module scope for names, including
making a type used by multiple modules within a directory opaque to other
code outside the directory.

(b) I don't want to recompile all my other code because a change to
the implementation of my module caused the container .cmi file to change.


I prefer specifying the container module name on the command line or
adding a "package" declaration to the source file as in Java.


	John Carr
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