[erlang-questions] Erlang 3000?

[Benjamin Tolputt]

Bob Ippolito wrote:
> I think the problem is that packages were implemented in an
> undesirable way. Erlang does have a package system, but AFIAK nobody
> uses it or likes it.
>
> What I don't like about the package system is that any time you use it
> you need to do a bunch of explicit stuff to use standard modules (e.g.
> -import(list) or something).
>   

For me it would be enough if I could do the following:
------------------

%% File: namespace1.module1.erl
-module(namespace1.module1).

%% Namespace for this file - probable not required if I can simply name
the file appropriately
-namespace(default, namespace1).
-namespace(using, namespace1.module2).

-export([foo/0]).

foo()->
    module2:bar(), %% This will actually use namespace1.module2:bar()
    ok.

------------------

%% File: namespace1.module2.erl
-module(namespace1.module2).

%% Namespace for this file - probable not required if the compiler can
work it out from filename
-namespace(default, namespace1).

-export([bar/0]).

bar()->
    file:get_cwd(). %% As there is no "namespace1.file.erl" module, this
will use the standard file:get_cwd() fun

------------------

This would give standard behaviour for modules not within the namespace
and for where the code never uses the "-namespace(...)" (such as all
existing code).

>From the look of it - it could be implemented simply by replacing any
occurence of "module2" to "namespace1.module2" in the compilation phase.
There are issues with the passing around of atoms though (for example,
say I pass the atom tuple {module2, bar} to code outside the namespace
and it then uses it to call module2:bar - what happens?).

There is a bit of thought needed before this would go ahead, but I don't
think the parties most needed in the discussions are interested in
implementing this at the moment.

-- 
Regards,

Benjamin Tolputt
Analyst Programmer

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