Internal and External Symbols (original) (raw)

11 Packages 11.1 Package Concepts 11.1.1 Introduction to Packages 11.1.1.2 Symbols in a Package

11.1.1.2.1 Internal and External Symbols

The mappings in a package are divided into two classes, external and internal. The symbols targeted by these different mappings are called external symbols and internal symbols of the_package. Within a package, a name refers to onesymbol_ or to none; if it does refer to a symbol, then it is either external or internal in that_package, but not both.**External symbols**are part of the package's public interface to other packages.Symbols_ become external symbols of a given_package_ if they have been exported from that package.

A symbol has the same name no matter what _package_it is present in, but it might be an external symbol of some _packages_and an internal symbol of others.