[Gretl-devel] comment on user-functions and packages

A brief clarification of a recent response to Sven. I'm aware that some things in the area of function packaging are not right, but I need probably a couple of days free of distractions to get things closer to right. The main issue is this: although packages exist, there is a completely "flat" namespace for user-defined functions in gretl right now. This has various undesirable consequences. * Suppose you load a package "X" which contains an auxiliary function foo(). Then you load another package "Y" which also has an auxiliary function foo(). The second foo() will overwrite the first. If the two instances happen to be identical (or at least, functionally identical) this might not matter much, but if the two foo() functions were different, package X will now be broken! * (As Sven found, sorry) if you delete a package "Y" which contains an auxiliary function foo() that is shared with other packages, watch out: foo() will be gone, deleted along with its parent, despite the fact that it may be referenced by other packages. As I said, this needs fixing. But in the meantime if you are developing function packages, please follow this rule: Make sure that in any given package, _all_ functions have unique names that will not collide with any other functions. Do not rely on "sharing" code between function packages; it won't work in general. Allin.