namespaces proposal

[stefnotch]

Maybe one of us should be brave enough to write up a WebGPU proposal for namespaces. One that lets us cleanly say "a WESL module creates a WGSL namespace".

We'd need

• a namespace for built-ins
• support nested namespaces
• a fully.qualified.syntax()
• a lot of research on how other programming languages did namespaces

[mighdoll]

Some ideas for namespaces summarized in this module system discussion doc. Notably:

Module Hierarchy Starts From File Hierarchy

Code in files and libraries are addressable in a 'module hierarchy'. File and directory names names in applications map automatically into the module hierarchy. Future features like namespace would also be placed into the module hierarchy.

namespaces

If zip.wgsl has a future namespace construct like namespace dig { fn bar() {} }, the namespace would map into the same addressable hierarchy.

• import super::util::zip::dig::bar;
• If a namespace name matches a file (or directory) name at the same place in the module hierarchy, both can be imported. Names conflicts can happen.

hierarchy remapping (aka re-exporting)

Allow grafting subtrees into the module hierarchy from WESL.

For example, let's say the file system contains other/bar/zig.wesl and other/bar/zag.wesl. We've discussed namespace variations that place a namespace in the module hierarchy. We might put a statement like this in util/stuff.wesl:

• namespace foo = package::other::bar;

Then you could write:

• import package::util::stuff::foo::zig