[erlang-questions] Why do we need modules at all?

[Jesper Louis Andersen]

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 16:31, Anthony Ramine <nox@REDACTED> wrote:
>
> packages are NOT in Erlang? Then the related code should be removed because
> erl.lang.number:plus(1, 1) definitely works.
>

The problem is that a package hierarchy enforces a tree-like
structure. And we may not want the tree. You might want the same
module to reside in multiple packages in the hierarchy at the same
time. We are past 2005 now and we know what a tag cloud is. About time
we began thinking of how that would fit into a programming lang. :-)

The only real advantage of a package tree is that you can:

* Shove some packages underneath a common notifier. This limits the
packages currently in scope.
* Shortcut reference to package if they nest.

I think both would be better served by a system different from hierarchy.


-- 
J.