[fpc-devel] Namespaces [was: is that intended? private type section in classes versus visibility]

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Graeme Geldenhuys schrieb:

> my projects - instead I have to keep coming up with new prefixes. I
> already have gg_utils.pas, mm_utils.pas, fpg_utils.pas, m2c_utils.pas
> for some of my projects. It would be awesome if I can simply use
> utils.pas and define a namespace via a compiler parameter.

How should that work? How to distinguish between <std>utils.pas and 
<other>utils.pas, in "using utils;"?

IMO a directory structure has the obvious advantage, that it can be 
verified without looking into source code. Namespaces instead are 
arbitrary per se, and every part of a module (unit) can be assigned to 
an arbitrary namespace. A dedicated tool would have to build the 
namespace tree, by inspecting all files (or directories) related to a 
project (and installation...), before one (including the compiler) can 
know the contents of every namespace qualifier. The compiler would have 
to build the namespace tree, in addition to the already existing search 
path tree/cache. AFAIK .NET build such an global (system wide) cache for 
namespace resolution - should we really add such a beast as a mandatory 
requirement for every FPC user? Not to mention the requirement to 
install every source file (directories) into that namespace manager...

DoDi