KerML 1.0b3 FTF Avatar
  1. OMG Issue

KERML_ — Make imports private by default

  • Key: KERML_-74
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Model Driven Solutions ( Mr. Ed Seidewitz)
  • Summary:

    Currently, the default visibility for an Import relationship is public (see KerML specification, 8.3.2.4.1, Figure 8). This is consistent with the default visibility for Membership relationships. This means that, by default, any memberships that are imported into a namespace are also visible memberships that are "re-exported" out of the importing namespace.

    Now, imports are often used just to make names from on namespace available without qualification within another namespace, with no real intention of re-exporting those names. Nevertheless, unless a modeler explicitly changes the import visibility to private from the default of public, then the names will still all be re-exported anyway. Such re-exporting when unnecessary can have a significant, unintentional impact on the performance of name resolution for a large textually represented model by greatly increasing the space of visible names that need to be searched.

    If, on the other hand, import relationships were private by default, then they could still be easily used for importing into a namespace. However, the modeler would then need to make an explicit decision to change the visibility to public if it is desired to re-export the imported names, with, presumably, an explicit consideration of the consequences of doing so.

  • Reported: KerML 1.0b2 — Mon, 6 May 2024 03:49 GMT
  • Updated: Tue, 28 May 2024 00:12 GMT