Units with Signatures Overview

The unit syntax presented in section 7.1 poses a serious notational problem: each variable that is imported or exported must be separately enumerated in many import, export, and link clauses. Consider the phone book program example from section 7.1.3: a realistic graphics@ unit would contain many more procedures than make-window and make-button, and it would be unreasonable to enumerate the entire graphics toolbox in every client module. Future extensions to the graphics library are likely, and while the program must certainly be re-compiled to take advantage of the changes, the programmer should not be required to change the program text in every place that the graphics library is used.

This problem is solved by separating the specification of a unit's signature (or ``interface'') from its implementation. A unit signature is basically a list of variable names. A signature can be used in an import clause, an export clause, a link clause, or an invocation expression to import or link a set of variables at once. Signatures clarify the connections between units, prevent mis-orderings in the specification of imported variables, and provide better error messages when an illegal linkage is specified.

Signatures are used to create units with signatures, a.k.a. signed units. Signatures and signed units are used together to create signed compound units. As in the core system, a signed compound unit is itself a signed unit.

Signed units are first-class values, just like their counterparts in the core system. A signature is not a value. However, signature information is bundled into each signed unit value so that signature-based checks can be performed at run time (when signed units are linked and invoked).

Along with its signature information, a signed unit includes a primitive unit from the core system that implements the signed unit. This underlying unit can be extracted for mixed-mode programs using both signed and unsigned units. More importantly, the semantics of signed units is the same as the semantics for regular units; the additional syntax only serves to specify signatures and to check signatures for linking.

• Importing and Exporting with Signatures
• Linking with Signatures
• Restricting Signatures
• Embedded Units