thanks. That sounds like a great answer, too. I thought about the
precedent Java started, but they also put the parentheses in the wrong
place, right :) ? And pretty it may be, but think about the free metaphor
you get by making it slashes. You are inviting beginners into the language
("This is like a file path. Never mind what Java does. Everywhere you see
dots, think java.") Ok, you would want one dot at the end anyway for the
symbols. I'm still not convinced that it's necessary, but I think I
understand the rule. I would have just been happier with my rule
(Everywhere I see dots, that must be java code)
On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 8:57 PM, Stephen C. Gilardi <squee...@mac.com>wrote:
>
> On Jan 23, 2009, at 8:21 PM, e wrote:
>
> Ah hah! I finally understand something. See this is what would really
>> help in the explanation. Something like, "In Java, each file defines only a
>> single outer class, which must have the same name as the file. This simple
>> approach means that there is never any confusion that the last section
>> refers to a class in a given package. Clojure trades simplicity for
>> flexibility. To specify one of the many top-level symbols provided in a
>> namespace, a slash is used to separate it from the namespace" Did I say
>> that right?
>>
>
> Nah ..... I still don't see why all dots or all slashes can't be used. In
> the case that a single file makes up a single namespace, the namespace in
> clojure equals the outer class in Java, and Java does just fine using dots
> to get not only to the outer class but to the fields and inner classes. In
> clojure the last dot gets you to the subdirectory (a.k.a. namespace) ....
> why can't you just keep on going with one more dot to get to the symbols?
> And this would work even with more than one file in a namespace. You just
> couldn't multiply define a symbol w/in the same subdirectory.
>
>
> Java uses dot separators for many different cases as you've described. In
> Clojure, a symbol written as x/y always means "the symbol whose namespace
> part is x and whose name part is y" regardless of the (legal for a symbol)
> characters that make up x and y. The fact that this is an explicit and
> simple rule means that working with symbols is fast and unambiguous for both
> the Clojure reader and compiler and for Clojure programmers.
>
> Given that, it would not be feasible to use slashes to delimit "parts" of a
> namespace name. Periods are used for that purpose. Period-separated names
> are pretty and mapping a period-separated name to a location in the
> filesystem has precedent in Java.
>
> 3) yes namespaces can be nested. that's the purpose of the dots, to
>>> separate levels of nesting.
>>
>>
>> So it's an error if a file specifies the wrong namespace for where it is
>> in the project hierarchy?
>>
>
> The simple answer is "yes, it's an error".
>
> The more complete answer is:
>
> If you manage to load a file that contains an ns form that doesn't match
> its classpath-relative location, the load will succeed. However, if you
> declare a dependency (:require or :use) on a lib and that lib's file is not
> located at the correct classpath-relative location, Clojure will not be able
> to find the file to satisfy the dependency.
>
> --Steve
>
>
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