Hi steven

On Monday, May 6, 2002, at 08:38  PM, Stephen Pair wrote:

> In looking at the Module code, it seems that there is some confusion
> over the nature of the Module hierarchy.  In certain circumstances, it
> seems that the hierarchy implies more than just a naming mechanism (i.e.
> if you unload a module, it automatically unloads the submodules by
> default).
>
> I think I'm of the opinion that the purpose of hierarchy should be
> strictly confined to naming.

You are right. When Henrik was at Benr it took us a while to understand 
that.

The hierarhcy is to disambiguate modules names
then there is the prerequisite relationships (or use realtionship) that 
implies lookup and convey the scope visibility.
Henrik mixed both for optimization at implementation level but they should 
be separated at least conceptually.

After we should complain that people do not get modules :)

>  There should be no other relationship
> between modules and submodules implied by the name hierarchy whatsoever.



> Names should be resolved by looking within the current module and any
> imported (and consequently pre-requisite) modules without regard to the
> name hierarchy.  In fact, it would probably not be useful to think in
> terms of modules and sub-modules at all.  But rather, they are all just
> modules, some of which may have elements of their name in common.
>
> - Stephen
>
>