Re: Need suggestions for terminology

# from Michael G Schwern
# on Friday 02 December 2011 19:10:

>> Module: I actually avoid using the term Module because I think it is
>> often misused.  I feel that a Module is a physical file (i.e.
>> something that you "use").  But some folks use the terms Module and
>> Package interchangeably.  To be precise, CPAN (and Pinto) index
>> Packages not Modules.  So when you ask cpan[1] to install Foo::Bar,
>> what you actually install is an Archive that contains some Module
>> that provides Package Foo::Bar, and that Module may or may not be
>> called Foo/Bar.pm. At least, that's how I understand it.
>
>Agreed that "module" is overloaded.  I would associated it either with
>the .pm file or with the distribution.  Probably best to avoid it all
> together.

True.  But, what do you call:

  1)  The thing which is a first argument to use() ?
    (it's shaped like a package name, but means a file to be loaded
      (without accounting for subrefs in @INC))

  2)  The "Foo/Bar.pm" argument to require() ?

I would say that:

  1) "Foo::Bar" in that usage is a "module name".

  2) "Foo/Bar.pm" is a "module path"

The distinction between a "module name" and a package, is that a module 
name can be translated into a module path with:

  ($name = $path . '.pm') =~ s{::}{/}g;

--Eric
-- 
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
--The Napoleon-Clarke Law
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