=begin pod :kind("Language") :subkind("Language") :category("fundamental")

=TITLE Packages

=SUBTITLE Organizing and referencing namespaced program elements

=begin comment

TODO
* Take a lot of stuff from S02 for this
* Document 'import'

=end comment

Packages are nested namespaces of named program elements.
L<Modules|/language/module-packages>, classes, grammars, and others are types of
packages. Like files in a directory, you can generally refer to named elements
with their short-name if they are local, or with the longer name that includes
the namespace to disambiguate as long as their scope allows that.

=head1 Names

A package I<name> is anything that is a legal part of a variable name (not
counting the sigil). This includes:

=begin code
class Foo {
    sub zape () { say "zipi" }
    class Bar {
        method baz () { return 'Þor is mighty' }
        our &zape = { "zipi" };
        our $quux = 42;
    }
}

my $foo;                # simple identifiers
say Foo::Bar.baz;       # calling a method; OUTPUT: «Þor is mighty␤»
say Foo::Bar::zape;     # compound identifiers separated by ::; OUTPUT: «zipi␤»
my $bar = 'Bar';
say $Foo::($bar)::quux; # compound identifiers with interpolations; OUTPUT: «42␤»
$42;                    # numeric names
$!;                     # certain punctuation variables
=end code

X<|::,package>
C<::> is used to separate nested package names.

Packages do not really have an identity; they can be simply part of a module or
class name, for instance. They are more similar to namespaces than to modules. A
module of the same name will I<capture> the identity of a package if it
exists.

=begin code
package Foo:ver<0> {};
module Foo:ver<1> {};
say Foo.^ver; # OUTPUT: «1␤»
=end code

The syntax allows the declared package to use a version as well as an
I<authority> C<auth>, but as a matter of
fact, it's dismissed; only modules, classes and other higher order type
objects have an identity that might include C<auth> and C<ver>.

=for code :skip-test<Illustrates error>
package Foo:ver<0>:auth<bar> {};
say Foo.^auth;
# OUTPUT: «(exit code 1) No such method 'auth' for invocant of type
# 'Perl6::Metamodel::PackageHOW' ...

=head2 Package-qualified names

Ordinary package-qualified names look like this: C<$Foo::Bar::quux>,
which would be the C<$quux> variable in package C<Foo::Bar>;
C<Foo::Bar::zape> would represent the C<&zape> variable in the same
package.

Sometimes it's clearer to keep the sigil with the variable name, so an
alternate way to write this is:

    Foo::Bar::<$quux>

This does not work with the C<Foo«&zape»> variable, since C<sub>s, by default,
have lexical scope. The name is resolved at compile time because the variable
name is a constant. We can access the rest of the variables in C<Bar> (as shown
in the example above) since classes, by default, have package scope.

If the name part before C<::> is null, it means the package is unspecified and
must be searched for. Generally this means that an initial C<::> following the
main sigil is a no-op on names that are known at compile time, though C<::()>
can also be used to introduce an interpolation. Also, in the absence of another
sigil, C<::> can serve as its own sigil indicating intentional use of a
not-yet-declared package name.

=head1 Pseudo-packages

X«|MY (package)»X«|OUR (package)»X«|CORE (package)»X«|GLOBAL (package)»X«|PROCESS (package)»X«|COMPILING(package)»
The following pseudo-package names are reserved at the front of a name:

=begin table
MY          Symbols in the current lexical scope (aka $?SCOPE)
OUR         Symbols in the current package (aka $?PACKAGE)
CORE        Outermost lexical scope, definition of standard Raku
GLOBAL      Interpreter-wide package symbols, really UNIT::GLOBAL
PROCESS     Process-related globals (superglobals). The last place dynamic variable lookup will look.
COMPILING   Lexical symbols in the scope being compiled
=end table

X«|CALLER (package)»X«|CALLERS (package)»X«|DYNAMIC (package)»
X«|OUTER (package)»X«|OUTERS (package)»X«|LEXICAL (package)»
X«|UNIT (package)»X«|SETTING (package)»X«|PARENT (package)»X«|CLIENT (package)»
The following relative names are also reserved but may be used
anywhere in a name:

=begin table
    CALLER      Dynamic symbols in the immediate caller's lexical scope
    CALLERS     Dynamic symbols in any caller's lexical scope
    DYNAMIC     Dynamic symbols in my or any caller's lexical scope
    OUTER       Symbols in the next outer lexical scope
    OUTERS      Symbols in any outer lexical scope
    LEXICAL     Dynamic symbols in my or any outer's lexical scope
    UNIT        Symbols in the outermost lexical scope of compilation unit
    SETTING     Lexical symbols in the unit's DSL (usually CORE)
    PARENT      Symbols in this package's parent package (or lexical scope)
    CLIENT      The nearest CALLER that comes from a different package
=end table

The file's scope is known as C<UNIT>, but there are one or more lexical
scopes outside of that corresponding to the linguistic setting (often
known as the prelude in other cultures). Hence, the C<SETTING> scope is
equivalent to C<UNIT::OUTERS>. For a standard Raku program C<SETTING>
is the same as C<CORE>, but various startup options (such as C<-n> or
C<-p>) can put you into a domain specific language, in which case
C<CORE> remains the scope of the standard language, while C<SETTING>
represents the scope defining the DSL that functions as the setting of
the current file. When used as a search term in the middle of a name,
C<SETTING> includes all its outer scopes up to C<CORE>. To get I<only>
the setting's outermost scope, use C<UNIT::OUTER> instead.

=head1 Looking up names

=head2 Interpolating into names
X<|interpolating into names>

X<|::()> You may L<interpolate|/language/packages#Interpolating> a string into a
package or variable name using C<::($expr)> where you'd ordinarily put a package
or variable name. The string is allowed to contain additional instances of
C<::>, which will be interpreted as package nesting. You may only interpolate
entire names, since the construct starts with C<::>, and either ends immediately
or is continued with another C<::> outside the parentheses. Most symbolic
references are done with this notation:

=for code :skip-test<showcasing syntaxes>
my $foo = "Foo";
my $bar = "Bar";
my $foobar = "Foo::Bar";
$::($bar)              # lexically-scoped $Bar
$::("MY::$bar")        # lexically-scoped $Bar
$::("OUR::$bar")       # package-scoped $Bar
$::("GLOBAL::$bar")    # global $Bar
$::("PROCESS::$bar")   # process $Bar
$::("PARENT::$bar")    # current package's parent's $Bar
$::($foobar)           # $Foo::Bar
@::($foobar)::baz      # @Foo::Bar::baz
@::($foo)::Bar::baz    # @Bar::Bar::baz
@::($foobar)baz        # ILLEGAL at compile time (no operator baz)
@::($foo)::($bar)::baz # @Foo::Bar::baz

An initial C<::> doesn't imply global; here as part of the interpolation
syntax it doesn't even imply package. After the interpolation of the
C<::()> component, the indirect name is looked up exactly as if it had
been there in the original source code, with priority given first to
leading pseudo-package names, then to names in the lexical scope
(searching scopes outwards, ending at C<CORE>). The current package is
searched last.

Use the C<MY> pseudopackage to limit the lookup to the current lexical scope,
and C<OUR> to limit the scopes to the current package scope.

In the same vein, class and method names can be interpolated too:

    role with-method {
        method a-method { return 'in-a-method of ' ~ $?CLASS.^name  };
    }

    class a-class does with-method {
        method another-method { return 'in-another-method' };
    }

    class b-class does with-method {};

    my $what-class = 'a-class';

    say ::($what-class).a-method; # OUTPUT: «in-a-method of a-class␤»
    $what-class = 'b-class';
    say ::($what-class).a-method; # OUTPUT: «in-a-method of b-class␤»

    my $what-method = 'a-method';
    say a-class."$what-method"(); # OUTPUT: «in-a-method of a-class␤»
    $what-method = 'another-method';
    say a-class."$what-method"(); # OUTPUT: «in-another-method␤»

X<|::($c).m>
X<|A."$m"()>
=head2 Direct lookup

To do direct lookup in a package's symbol table without scanning, treat the
package name as a hash:

=for code :skip-test<showcasing syntaxes>
Foo::Bar::{'&baz'}  # same as &Foo::Bar::baz
PROCESS::<$IN>      # same as $*IN
Foo::<::Bar><::Baz> # same as Foo::Bar::Baz

Unlike C<::()> symbolic references, this does not parse the argument for C<::>,
nor does it initiate a namespace scan from that initial point. In addition, for
constant subscripts, it is guaranteed to resolve the symbol at compile time.

You cannot use this kind of direct lookup inside regular expressions, unless you
issue a C<MONKEY-SEE-NO-EVAL> pragma. The main intention of this measure is to
avoid user input being executed externally.

The null pseudo-package is the same search list as an ordinary name search.
That is, the following are all identical in meaning:

=for code :skip-test<showcasing syntaxes>
$foo
::{'$foo'}
::<$foo>

Each of them scans the lexical scopes outward, and then the current
package scope (though the package scope is then disallowed when "strict" is
in effect).

=head2 Package lookup

Subscript the package object itself as a hash object, the key of which is
the variable name, including any sigil. The package object can be derived
from a type name by use of the C<::> postfix:

=for code :skip-test<showcasing syntax>
MyType::<$foo>

=head2 Class member lookup

Methods—including auto-generated methods, such as public attributes'
accessors—are stored in the class metaobject and can be looked up through by
the L<lookup|/routine/lookup> method.

=for code
Str.^lookup('chars')

=head1 Globals

Interpreter globals live in the C<GLOBAL> package. The user's program
starts in the C<GLOBAL> package, so "our" declarations in the mainline code
go into that package by default. Process-wide variables live in the
C<PROCESS> package. Most predefined globals such as C<$*UID> and C<$*PID>
are actually process globals.

=end pod

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