The Module System of XSB

XSB has been designed as a module-oriented Prolog system. Modules provide a small step towards logic programming ``in the large'' that facilitates large programs or projects to be put together from components which can be developed, compiled and tested separately. Also module systems enforce the principle of information hiding and can provide a basis for data abstraction.

The module system of XSB, unlike the module systems of most other Prolog systems is atom-based. Briefly, the main difference between atom-based module systems and predicate-based ones is that in an atom-based module system any symbol in a module can be imported, exported or be a local symbol as opposed to the predicate-based ones where this can be done only for predicate symbols ^3.1.

Usually the following three files are associated with a particular module:

• A single source file, whose name is the module name plus the suffix ``.P''.
• An optional header file, whose name is the module name plus the suffix ``.H''.
• An object (byte-code) file, whose name consists of the module name plus the suffix ``.O''.

The header file is normally used to contain declarations and directives while the source file usually contains the actual definitions of the predicates defined in that module. The module hierarchy of XSB is therefore flat -- nested modules are not possible.

In order for a file to be a module, it should contain one or more export declarations, which specify that a set of symbols appearing in that module is visible and therefore can be used by any other module. A module can also contain local declarations, which specify that a set of symbols are visible by this module only, and therefore cannot be accessed by any other module. Any file (either module or not) may also contain import declarations, which allow symbols defined in and exported by other modules to be used in the current module. We note that only exported symbols can be imported; for example importing a local symbol will cause an environment conflict error.

Export, local, and import declarations can appear anywhere in the source or header files and have the following forms:

:- export sym₁, ..., sym_l.

:- local sym₁, ..., sym_m.

:- import sym₁, ..., sym_n from module.

where sym_i has the form functor/arity.

If the user does not want to use modules, he can simply bypass the module system by not supplying any export declarations. Such export-less files (non-modules) will be loaded into the module usermod, which is the working module of the XSB interpreter.

Currently the module name is stored in its byte code file, which means that if the byte code file is renamed, the module name is not altered, and hence may cause confusion to the user and/or the system. So, it is advisable that the user not rename byte code files generated for modules by the XSB compiler. However, byte code files generated for non-modules can be safely renamed. We will try to fix the problem described above in future releases.

In order to understand the semantics of modules, the user should keep in mind that in a module oriented system, the name of each symbol is identified as if it were prefixed with its module name, hence two symbols of the same functor/arity but different module prefixes are distinct symbols. Currently the following set of rules is used to determine the module prefix of a symbol:

• Every predicate symbol appearing in a module (i.e. that appears as the head of some clause) is assumed to be local to that module unless it is declared otherwise (via an export or import declaration). Symbols that are local to a given module are not visible to other modules.
• Every other symbol (essentially function symbols) in a module is assumed to be global (its module prefix is usermod) unless declared otherwise.
• If a symbol is imported from another module (via an explicit import declaration), the module prefix of the symbol is the module it is imported from; any other symbol takes the module where the symbol occurs as its module prefix.
• The XSB interpreter is entered with usermod as its working module.
• Symbols that are either defined in non-modules loaded into the system or that are dynamically created (by the use of standard predicates such as read/1, functor/3, '=..'/2, etc) are contained in usermod^3.2.

The following facts about the module system of XSB may not be immediately obvious:

• If users want to use a symbol from another module, they must explicitly import it otherwise the two symbols are different even if they are of the same functor/arity form.
• A module can only export predicate symbols that are defined in that module. As a consequence, a module cannot export predicate symbols that are imported from other modules. This happens because an import declaration is just a request for permission to use a symbol from a module where its definition and an export declaration appear.
• The implicit module for a particular symbol appearing in a module must be uniquely determined. As a consequence, a symbol of a specific functor/arity cannot be declared as both exported and local, or both exported and imported from another module, or declared to be imported from more than one module, etc. These types of environment conflicts are detected at compile-time and abort the compilation.
• It is an error to import a symbol from a module that does not export it. This error is not detected at compile-time but at run-time when a call to that symbol is made. If the symbol is defined in, but not exported from the module that defines it, an environment conflict error will take place. If the symbol is not defined in that module an undefined predicate/function error will be be reported to the user.
• In the current implementation, at any time only one symbol of a specific functor/arity form can appear in a module. As an immediate consequence of this fact, only one functor/arity symbol can be loaded into the current working module ( usermod). An attempt to load a module that redefines that symbol results in a warning to the user and the newly loaded symbol overrides the definition of the previously loaded one.