I started working on a project which contains many classes in it. One of them is name "SpacePosition" which holds x and y position, and a method "distance". Distance is defined as both instance method and class method. So I can call it like,

SpacePosition.distance( pos1, pos2 );

After defining many classes in the my main.d file, I wanted to separate the classes into separate files. I created a new file with the name "SpacePosition.d" and put the class into it.

In the main.d, I added the line "import SpacePosition;". And when I compile the main.d, BAM!

Error: undefined identifier distance in module SpacePosition

So you have to import it like "import SpacePosition: SpacePosition;" or call the method like "SpacePosition.Spaceposition.distance( pos1, pos2 )".

While the main purpose of modules/namespaces is to separate the things so they can be managed much easily, this adds the code weirdness.

I think it would be better to add "import" mechanism a new syntax to make calls as done in Java. Example:

import class my.project.classes.SpacePosition;

So the compiler would enforce SpacePosition.d file to contain a single class definition with name "SpacePosition".

On Sunday, 17 November 2019 at 09:03:03 UTC, tcak wrote:
> I started working on a project which contains many classes in it. One of them is name "SpacePosition" which holds x and y position, and a method "distance". Distance is defined as both instance method and class method. So I can call it like,
>
> SpacePosition.distance( pos1, pos2 );
>
> After defining many classes in the my main.d file, I wanted to separate the classes into separate files. I created a new file with the name "SpacePosition.d" and put the class into it.
>
> In the main.d, I added the line "import SpacePosition;". And when I compile the main.d, BAM!
>
> Error: undefined identifier distance in module SpacePosition
>
> So you have to import it like "import SpacePosition: SpacePosition;" or call the method like "SpacePosition.Spaceposition.distance( pos1, pos2 )".
>
> While the main purpose of modules/namespaces is to separate the things so they can be managed much easily, this adds the code weirdness.
>
> I think it would be better to add "import" mechanism a new syntax to make calls as done in Java. Example:
>
> import class my.project.classes.SpacePosition;
>
> So the compiler would enforce SpacePosition.d file to contain a single class definition with name "SpacePosition".

The problem was that module name was same as class name, and that got into conflict. Try make it lowercase then it should work. Also check https://dlang.org/dstyle.html for D code style, per it's recommendation module name should be all lowercase alpha numeric name if possible.

Regarding java like semantics for modules, I doubt it will be appropriate since unlike java, D modules repesents a collection of interdependent entities (classes, funcs etc.) which sometime need access to private state of each other similar to how class friends in c++ works, therefore it will be quite complicated to expose two classes that are interdependent (access private state of each other) if only one is allowed to be public.

Best regards,
Alexandru.

On Sunday, 17 November 2019 at 11:36:47 UTC, Alexandru Ermicioi wrote:
> ...

D module can be thought in terms of Java as a public class that contains a set of nested classes & methods, some public some private, with same access rules in between them.

Best regards,
Alexandru.

On Sunday, 17 November 2019 at 09:03:03 UTC, tcak wrote:
> In the main.d, I added the line "import SpacePosition;". And when I compile the main.d, BAM!

I'm of the opinion that you should basically never write single-name modules too, since the module namespace is global.

If it was `myproject.SpacePosition` you'd be fine on this and it would protect you from other potential conflicts down the line too.

On 11/17/2019 1:03 AM, tcak wrote:
> I started working on a project which contains many classes in it. One of them is name "SpacePosition" which holds x and y position, and a method "distance". Distance is defined as both instance method and class method. So I can call it like,
> 
> SpacePosition.distance( pos1, pos2 );
> 
> After defining many classes in the my main.d file, I wanted to separate the classes into separate files. I created a new file with the name "SpacePosition.d" and put the class into it.
> 
> In the main.d, I added the line "import SpacePosition;". And when I compile the main.d, BAM!
> 
> Error: undefined identifier distance in module SpacePosition
> 
> So you have to import it like "import SpacePosition: SpacePosition;" or call the method like "SpacePosition.Spaceposition.distance( pos1, pos2 )".

The usual D practice is to call the module "spaceposition.d" that contains "SpacePosition".