On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 3:15 PM Boris Kolpackov via SG15 <
sg15_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> Nathan Sidwell via SG15 <sg15_at_[hidden]> writes:
>
> > My understanding is that SG15 was moving to recommend a different file
> > suffix for CMI-producing source files. I understood the rationale to be
> for
> > tools.
>
> The rationale was that it can be beneficial to know that a file is a
> module interface unit from its name in various contexts (tools, humans,
> etc), the same as we can do for headers.


I can see an argument for distinguishing importable units from
non-importable units, but I'm not sure there is a reason for tools or
humans to distinguish on the interface/implementation unit axis. Especially
since implementation units *can* contribute to the interface of a module:

module foo:internal;
struct Args{int not_private;};

export module foo;
import :internal;
export void foo(Args);

import foo;
int main() { foo({.not_private = 1234}); }


> After all, nothing prevents
> one calling their headers .cpp (it is C++, right) but nobody does that
> so there is clearly a benefit in the distinction.
>
> Also, keep in mind that if the interface unit uses the same extension
> as the implementation, then if you want to have both, you will have to
> mangle one of them, for example:
>
> foo.hpp -> foo.cpp
> foo.cpp -> foo-impl.cpp
>
> Another thing that just occurred to me is installation: do we want
> /usr/include/ full of .cpp files?
>

I'm not sure we should recommend putting non-#include-able files in
/usr/include. Importable module unit sources should probably get their own
install directory. We may be able to recommend a convention where
*installed* files are named based on the module+partition names, regardless
of how the files are named in the original source repo. This would simplify
the scanning situation of installed modules.

> We should hesitate in recommending a change from existing suffixes
> > in that case.
>
> I don't view this as changing something existing. Module interface
> units did not exist until now. We are now deciding which extension
> they should be using.
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