Re: supporting dynamic/interactive procedure re-definition

[Helmut Eller <eller dot helmut at gmail dot com>]

* Per Bothner [2010-10-07 00:37] writes:

>> Also isn't there a more direct way to call non-exported toplevel
>> functions?  E.g. there could be a namespace for the module foo and
>> foo:bar could refer the non-exported function.
>
> One of the reasons for module-private variables is so that the compiler
> can see every use.  That means a variable might be optimized away,
> or represented in a non-standard way.
>
> But the bigger reason is for information hiding.  So the programmer
> can change module internals and not have to worry about clients
> depending on those internals.

Sure, but currently I either have to restart the JVM process or export
much more than I otherwise would just so that I can debug it.  Also it's
more problematic to use the same name for different things in different
modules; I have to uses a globally unique name just for the case when I
need to export it for debugging.

> Of course a debugger needs access to internal definitions, and I could
> see it might be useful during development.  So perhaps there could be
> a debug mode allowing what you're asking for.  How much of an
> annoyance is this?

You mean debug-mode vs. locked-down-mode?  That would be fine by me.

Helmut