Newsgroups: comp.lang.dylan
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!EU.net!julienas!news.fnet.fr!ilog!news
From: davis@ilog.fr (Harley Davis)
Subject: Re: Name spaces and Modules (Was: Re: Two Dylan Questions)
In-Reply-To: patrick_d_logan@ccm.jf.intel.com's message of Mon, 9 Jan 1995 08:35:25
Message-ID: <DAVIS.95Jan10102924@passy.ilog.fr>
Lines: 45
Sender: news@ilog.fr
Nntp-Posting-Host: passy
Organization: Ilog SA, Gentilly, France
References: <rloD1tKCG.7D6@netcom.com> <CARROLL.95Jan4120858@quadriga.cis.udel.edu>
	<DAVIS.95Jan6142326@passy.ilog.fr>
	<patrick_d_logan.47.0008976B@ccm.jf.intel.com>
Date: 10 Jan 1995 09:29:23 GMT


In article <patrick_d_logan.47.0008976B@ccm.jf.intel.com> patrick_d_logan@ccm.jf.intel.com (Patrick D. Logan) writes:

   In article <DAVIS.95Jan6142326@passy.ilog.fr> davis@ilog.fr (Harley Davis) writes:
   >This problem exists in C/C++ but it doesn't seem to have affected the
   >health of the marketplace.  So I suspect it's really a pretty minor
   >issue in commercial practice.

   Many of the C++ libraries I can think off hand use prefixes in
   their names.  This is essentially an ad hoc solution. (What if two
   vedors choose the same prefix?) And not very pretty.

   If there is a module system that simply solves the problem, why not
   go with it?

Two points:

1. I'm not sure the Dylan module system solves the problem all that
   much better than name prefixes. (C++ namespaces either for that
   matter.)  This, for two reasons: There will be more modules than
   there are prefixes currently, thus increasing the chance for module
   name conflict (as someone else pointed out).  Also, if I understand
   Dylan's module system correctly, the problem may just pop right out
   again if you import two modules defining the same name into your
   own module.  In fact, this seems pretty likely as developers will
   be lulled by "separate" namespaces into reusing common names.

2. I think the evidence shows (and this was my original point) that
   the name conflict problem is a fairly minor issue in the overall
   scheme of things.  The fact is that the C & C++ library market has
   not suffered at all from this problem; each vendor chooses their
   ugly prefixes and life goes on.  So I don't think this aspect of
   Dylan's module system (or C++ namespaces) will have very much
   impact on Dylan's (or C++'s) success or lack thereof.

-- Harley Davis
-- 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harley Davis                            net: davis@ilog.fr
ILOG S.A.                               tel: +33 1 46 63 66 66
2 Avenue Gallini, BP 85                fax: +33 1 46 63 15 82
94253 Gentilly Cedex, France            url: http://www.ilog.fr/

           Ilog Talk information: info@ilog.com
