Re: Language lawyer question - private packages.

[stt@houdini.camb.inmet.com (Tucker Taft)]

Chris Miller (chrismil@ozemail.com.au) wrote:
: One for the language lawyers.

: Assume that you have two sets of packages as followes :-

:    package A is ... end;
:    private package A.B is ... end;
:    package A.B.C is ... end;

: AND

:    package A is ... end;
:    private package A.B is ... end;
:    private package A.B.C is ... end;--  * different.

: Once a certain level of the tree is private (A.B), what is the
: significance of making further children (A.B.C) private vs. public ?.

If a child is private, it is only visible to its (immediate) parent, and the
descendants of its parent.  Hence, private package A.B.C is visible
to A.B and A.B.*, but not to A.  By contrast, a public child
is just as "visible" as its parent.  Hence, anything that can see the
parent can see its public children.  For example, public package A.B.C *is*
visible to grandparent A, and all descendants thereof (A.*).

: What operations and / or visibility will I have on one set of packages
: that I will not 
: have on the other set ?.

: Any takers ?.

See above.

: Chris Miller
: Sydney Australia.
: chrismil@ozemail.com.au

-Tucker Taft   stt@inmet.com   http://www.inmet.com/~stt/
Intermetrics, Inc.  Cambridge, MA  USA