File: gawk.info,  Node: Namespace Summary,  Prev: Namespace And Features,  Up: Namespaces

15.9 Summary
============

   * Standard 'awk' provides a single namespace for all global
     identifiers (scalars, arrays, and functions).  This is limiting
     when one wants to develop libraries of reusable functions or
     function suites.

   * 'gawk' provides multiple namespaces by using qualified names: names
     consisting of a namespace name, a double colon, '::', and a
     component name.  Namespace names might still possibly conflict, but
     this is true of any language providing namespaces, modules, or
     packages.

   * The default namespace is 'awk'.  The rules for namespace and
     component names are provided in *note Naming Rules::.  The rules
     are designed in such a way as to make namespace-aware code continue
     to look and work naturally while still providing the necessary
     power and flexibility.

   * Other parts of 'gawk' have been extended as necessary to integrate
     namespaces smoothly with their operation.  This applies most
     notably to the profiler / pretty-printer (*note Profiling::) and to
     the extension facility (*note Dynamic Extensions::).

   * Overall, the namespace facility was designed and implemented such
     that backwards compatibility is paramount.  Programs that don't use
     namespaces should see absolutely no difference in behavior when run
     by a namespace-capable version of 'gawk'.