[erlang-questions] Why we need a -module() attribute?

[Bengt Kleberg]

Greetings,

Given the problem with case-sensitive file systems, and identifiers in 
code, why not ignore case?
It seems to work for Eiffel. No results from searching for Eiffel and 
problems with case. It is not a large language, so the number of people 
that have been exposed to case insensitivity is small.

This would not work for Erlang, but new languages could try.


bengt

On 02/19/2016 05:58 AM, Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:
>
>
> On 18/02/16 6:38 am, derek wrote:
>> that -module(). line sound like redundant, if it can be mismatched,
>> why can't it be omitted?
>> compiler can derive the module name from the filename anyway;
> No it cannot.  I *have* had this happen to me.
> I write a module 'search' and put it in a 'search.erl' file.
> I copy it to a memory stick.
> I plug the stick into another machine.
> Both machines have case-sensitive file systems, but
> the file name was changed to SEARCH.ERL
>
> Now, just given the file name SEARCH.ERL, was the module name
>  search
>  Search
>  SEARCH
>  seArch
> or something else?
>
> Deriving module names from file names is like
> holding a chain-saw by the blade.
> Usually OK but from time to time you'll lose a hand.
>
>>   Java
>> also made that filename has to match class name, that is a design
>> mistake and unnecessary requirement, to my opinion;
> Why?  A Java source file may contain MANY classes.
> Here is an AWK script that generates a file that defines 10 (as in TEN,
> as in twice FIVE) public classes.
>
> BEGIN {
>     c = "Hemulen"
>     f = c ".java"
>     print "public class " c " {" >f
>     s = "Hattifattener"
>     for (i = 1; i <= 9; i++) {
>         k = s i
>         print "    public static class " k " {" >f
>         print "        public static final int v = " i ";" >f
>         print "    }" >f
>         print "    public static final " k " v" i " = new " k "();" >f
>         print "" >f
>     }
>     print "}" >f
>     print "" >f
> }
>
> Run that script, then compile Hemulen.java, and you get ten *.class 
> files.
> Those classes cannot ALL get their names from Hemulen.java
>
> Actually, the coupling between Java file names and class names IS a
> major pain in the posterior.  I recently picked up a repository of source
> code for analysis  There are *hundreds* of .java files, and
> I CANNOT COMPILE A SINGLE ONE OF THEM
> because the file names got mangled.  I am going to have to read
> hundreds of files and manually change their names.  Sigh.
> The one and only thing that will make this situation salvageable
> is that the files *DO* contain the class names.
>> or on the other hand, if -module() is proved to be useful, why not
>> just ignore the filename, and always use what's defined in -module()?
>> in many modern language design like Go and Elixir, it's allowed to
>> define multiple Class/Module in one file
> Or you could mention Simula67, which allowed many classes in a source 
> file, and
> didn't care what the source file was called.
>
> We can't just ignore the file name yet, for the same reason that Java 
> doesn't.
> Java and Erlang use the file name to *find* the compiled module.
> It is really amazingly useful to have some confidence that you have 
> found the
> *right* file, given the horrible things file systems can do to you.
>
> File name syntax is far more diverse than people realise.
>
>
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