[erlang-questions] Are packaged modules the way to go ?

[cyril Romain]

Hi,

This mail is about packaged modules (module with namespace), aimed to 
extend Erlang with structured module packages [1].
You can find a quick introduction [2] and the packages module 
documentation [3].

Using packaged modules or not has little impact on code but quite big 
impact on:
 - project file structure and naming
 - tools analyzing Erlang files or project file structure (such as 
debugger, dialyzer, Emakefile, etc.).
 - and consequently on package structure (I mean Erlang software 
packaging here, such as done by CEAN [4]).
The support for packaged module has been introduced in Erlang/OTP before 
2003 for evaluation purpose [5], but its adoption (or the intent of 
adoption) seems still unclear today.

So my question is: for the sake of Erlang software consistency, should 
Erlang developers - be it core developers or developers using Erlang - 
adopt packaged modules ?
Does it need improvement before official adoption ? Should packaged 
modules be ignored (or even removed from Erlang?) instead ?

Best regards,

  Cyril

[1] http://www.it.uu.se/research/publications/reports/2000-001/
[2] http://www.erlang.se/publications/packages.html
[3] http://erlang.org/doc/man/packages.html ; For some reason exported 
methods are not documented.
[4] http://cean.process-one.net/
[5] http://www.erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2003-April/008575.html