New Issue: Should private functions be visible through POI ?

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16320, “vasslitvinov”, “Should private functions be visible through POI ?”, “2020-09-02T00:19:18Z”

Consider the following code, which relies on the POI (Point of Instantiation) rule in the spec:

module Lib {
  proc libfn(param p) {
    pubFn();   // invoke through POI
    privFn();  // invoke through POI
  }
}

module User {
  public  proc pubFn()  { compilerWarning("pubFn",  1); }
  private proc privFn() { compilerWarning("privFn", 1); }

  proc main() {
    use Lib;
    libfn(0);
    compilerError("done",0);
  }
}

should the call to privFn in Lib.libfn resolve?

Arguments in favor:

  • The POI rule requires the target function to be visible from the call site. Private functions ARE visible.
  • The current plan for Constrained Generics allows an interface function to be implemented with a private function.

Arguments against:

  • We can interpret private as prohibiting this use.