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Re: packagename proposal/RFE
- From: "Matt G." <matt_g_ at hotmail dot com>
- To: docbook at lists dot oasis-open dot org
- Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 10:24:24 +0000
- Subject: DOCBOOK: Re: packagename proposal/RFE
- Bcc:
Okay, only 1 week behind, this time.
From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>
To: docbook <docbook@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: DOCBOOK: packagename proposal/RFE
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 11:28:41 -0400
Issues for discussion:
1. Is "packagename" the right name for symmetry with classname and
interfacename or should this be simply "package"? Or perhapps
"oopackage" for symmetry with ooclass and oointerface?
Personally, I fail to see why 'package' wouldn't work just as well. Unless
'package' is desired as a structural element, there would be no meaningful
distinction between using 'package' and 'packagename', for an inline
element.
3. I'm mostly familiar with Java. Is there anything similar in
other language we should address here;
The concept of a package is pretty general. Even if the semantics aren't
exactly uniform, across languages, others (e.g. Python) would definitely
benefit from having a 'package' element. In general, I think use of the
term "package", to describe a distributable form of software, is pretty
common.
e.g. C++ or C# namespaces or Perl modules?
Arg! Please don't confuse namespaces and packages!! Even though Java may
align the two (which only works, by virtue of the fact that DNS is used as a
globally-unique package/namespace naming mechanism), THEY ARE ORTHOGONAL
CONCEPTS, ESPECIALLY IN C++ (though I'm in no position to speak about C#).
If anything, a separate element should be added, for denoting namespaces, as
in the context of C++ or XML.
If so, how does this affect the choice of name for this element?
It shouldn't, IMO, as the two concepts should be kept distinct. Since Java
couples them (or so I infer), it's not important to speak about namespaces,
as a separate concept, in that context.
Also, do any of these languages ever put a single class or interface
in more than one package?
Class? You absolutely have as many classes as you want, per package. By
'interface', I believe you mean a syntactic construct akin to Java's
interfaces, which C++ lacks. As far as logical interfaces - of course,
since packages aren't a language-level construct, in C++. As far as
namespaces go, C++ provides namespaces in a very pure, flexible manner.
There are differing usage models, for C++ namespaces, so I think it's a
mistake to try to load any semantics on a namespace, beyond the pure
definition of a namespace (which we're assuming to be named).
Thanks for considering my opinions.
Sincerely,
Matt Gruenke
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