@head
@title Definitions
This section contains definitions of various terms used in this document.
- accessor method
- A getter or a setter.
- compile error
- Any compile errors in a program must be reported when the program is
compiled or the program execution is being started, and they prevent the
execution of the program.
- error
- In this document, the term error is a synonym for
compile error.
- explicit member variable
- explicit member constant
- These are member variables and constants defined with the var or
const keywords. See also implicit member variable.
- fully qualified name
- The fully qualified name of a global definition contains the complete name
of the module that contains the definition, the :: operator and
the short name of the definition. For
example, the fully qualified name foo::bar::X refers to the
definition X in the module foo::bar. For definitions in
the main module, the fully qualified name is equal to the short name.
- getter
- A getter is a special method that is called every time a member variable or
constant is read to provide the requested value. When explicit member
variables and constants are defined, implicit getters are
automatically defined for them.
- implementation
- Implementation refers to the software system that includes the Alore
compiler, the Alore run-time system and the standard modules.
- implicit member variable
- implicit member constant
- These are member variables and constants that only have getters or setters
but no associated value slots.
- invocation
- The term invocation refers to the state related to a single call
operation: the value of called object, values of local variable bindings
active during the call and the state of the evaluation of the function call
(i.e. which statement or subexpression is currently being evaluated).
Multiple
invocations related to the same callable object may be active at a same
time, and they are independent of each other with separate local variables
and states of evaluation.
- main module
- The unnamed module that is formed by the main source file of the program.
- program
- A program contains a main source file and any modules imported by the
main source file or other modules that are part of the program.
- setter
- A setter is a special method that is called every time a member variable is
assigned to. When explicit member
variables are defined, implicit setters are automatically defined
for them.
- short name
- The short name of a definition is the name used in the definition without a
module prefix.
- value slot
- The value slots in objects contain the values of any explicit member
variables and constants defined in the class of the object. They provide
the primary way of building composite user-defined objects.