Interface and Implementation

Limbo modules can combine the interface and implementation. The Greet program shown in Program Listing 2-1 on page 2-3 is an example of this. In this case, only the init function is declared in the module declaration and is, therefore, exportable.

With Limbo's modular programming model, the separation of interface and implementation is an important concept. It is by means of this that Limbo programs can dynamically load and unload modules, or libraries.

The Inferno Reference API illustrates the power of this in Limbo. The API groups functionality into small loadable modules that have well-defined interfaces contained in module interface files. The executable code is contained in the implementation file.