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6835 :: Object with same name as module

• vitreo12 (orginal) [2020-09-18T11:56:27+02:00] view original

  Hello guys,

  I have been exploring the usage of modules, and I find that it's quite hard for Nim to deal with objects or procs that have the same name as the module where they are defined, when imported into other modules:

  foo.nim

  type foo* = object
  type foo_foo* = object
  Run

  bar.nim

  import foo
  export foo
  Run

  baz.nim

  import bar
  
  let a = bar.foo_foo()  #works, different name than the "foo" module
  let b = bar.foo()      #doesn't work, same name as the "foo" module
  Run

  Is there a way to achieve this without having to rename the module or the object?

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• Vindaar (orginal) [2020-09-18T14:46:14+02:00] view original

  Just 2 quick things:

  • it is standard to name types with capital letters, so type Foo = object (remember Nim is case insensitive except for the first character)
  • you don't have to qualify the module from which you use a type or proc, so let a = Foo() is fine.

  See also here: https://nim-lang.github.io/Nim/nep1.html

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• vitreo12 (orginal) [2020-09-18T15:08:26+02:00] view original

  Thanks! I know all of that, I just submitted a basic test code from a much bigger project (https://github.com/vitreo12/omni) that I'm working on.

  I just wondered of the general case of having idents with the same name of the module.

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• shirleyquirk (orginal) [2020-09-18T15:34:55+02:00] view original

  Works with procs. Capitalize types I guess.

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• mratsim (orginal) [2020-09-18T15:41:52+02:00] view original

  having idents with the same name of the module.

  Is an excellent way to trigger mysterious bugs that seem to disappear when you want to report them in the issue tracker.

  Unfortunately for now the best advice is "don't do that" but ideally I'd like a warning "[Warning]: Type 'foo' is shadowing a module 'foo'".

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• alexeypetrushin (orginal) [2020-09-18T16:06:45+02:00] view original

  I find this feature annoying, and workaround like calling modules with plurals times.nim instead of time.nim. Or crawlers.nim instead of crawler.nim because otherwise it would prevent you from defining local variable let crawler = ....

  Been thinking if it's worth to postfix files names with something like m as timem.nim to prevent this conflicts.

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• pietroppeter (orginal) [2020-09-18T16:22:25+02:00] view original

  For your specific example changing bar.nim to the following works:

  import foo as fu
  export fu
  Run

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• sschwarzer (orginal) [2020-09-19T00:22:54+02:00] view original

  I find this feature annoying. And workaround seems of calling modules with plurals times.nim instead of time.nim is not good.

  When I started with Nim, I noticed that the module naming convention was the "opposite" of Python's, which prefers singular words as module names. However, once you just take it as a naming convention, it's no longer a problem (for me at least).

  Sometimes, conventions are "just" conventions to be consistent, but some conventions also solve problems, like this plural naming convention for modules in Nim. This makes it even easier to stick to such conventions. :-)

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• Clonk (orginal) [2020-09-19T17:18:55+02:00] view original

  Python "private" keyword is naming things with an underscore. It's a convention but it works. Otherwise, @pietropetter proposed a valid solution as well.

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