Namespaces

A program provides two namespaces, value and type. The value namespace is for defined values and functions. The type namespace is for index sets, units, unit vectors, and types.

By convention index sets and types start in upper case, and values, functions and units of measurement in lower case. The generally prevents name clashes, but if an ambiguous name is used the space’s name can be put before the name to solve the ambiguity. For example

defindex Foo = {a, b, c};

define Foo = [1,2,3,4,5];

doc value Foo
    "A value with an ambiguous name";

doc type Foo
    "A type with an ambiguous name";

Definitions and Declarations

A Pacioli program contains various kinds of definitions. Each has its own keyword. These definitions can only occur at the top-level of a program.

The following table gives the keyword for the definitions and declarations in the value namespace.

Definition/Declaration	Keyword
Value or Function	define
Type Declaration	declare
Conversion	defconv
Matrix	defmatrix
Record	defrecord
Documentation	doc

The keyword defrecord is a special case that declares a type and various functions. It is syntactic sugare for a poor man’s record type based on tuples.

The following table gives the keyword for the definitions and declarations in the type namespace.

Definition/Declaration	Keyword
Index Set	defindex
Unit	defunit
Unit Alias	defalias
Type Definition	deftype