[m-dev.] pedantic quibble...

[Tyson Dowd]

On 23-Dec-1999, Michael Day <mcda at cat.cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> 
> > :- import is used by the C interface.  Pedantically, I'm thinking this
> > might be better as :- import_foreign or something like that.
> 
> Will the C interface become a "host language" interface once MLDS kicks in
> and Mercury is targeting every language that looks remotely plausible?

Not quite.   I have plans for a general foreign language interace which
will map down to the "host language" if it is possible, but will
otherwise compile into a separate module and .o file (or whatever).

I have some of that implemented (some syntax) and I know how I want to
do it, but it's been on hold for a bit.

(actually I was wrong, it's :- pragma import, not :- import for the C
interface).

> 
> > :- import by itself isn't particularly informative because there are
> > several different things you might want to import.
> 
> There are several things you might want to import, but is there any way to
> import them? If the only things that are importable are modules, there
> appears to be little ambiguity. (Fergus' original system mentioned
> importing predicates and types on an individual basis, but is this still
> viable?)

Maybe.  I suspect the answer is complex and it's too late to think
about it.

At the moment I like :- import_module because it is very explicit about
what is being imported.  

-- 
The quantum sort: 
	while (!sorted) { do_nothing(); }
Tyson Dowd   <tyson at tyse.net>   http://tyse.net/
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