Keyword "package" prevents from importing a package module "package.d"

[Adam D Ruppe]

On Thursday, 2 November 2023 at 19:30:58 UTC, Jonathan M Davis 
wrote:
> The entire reason that it was added to the language was to be 
> able to split up existing modules without breaking code. And it 
> does that well.

No, it doesn't do that well at all. In fact, it does that so 
extremely poorly that (as you might recall) there were a very 
large number of support requests shortly after Phobos started 
using it about broken builds, since it would keep the old file 
and the new file when you updated and this stupid, idiotic design 
can't handle that situation.

This only subsided because enough time has passed that nobody 
tries using it to break up existing modules anymore.

It is just a *terrible* design that never should have passed 
review. It is randomly inconsistent with the rest of the language 
and this manifests as several bugs.

(including but not limited to:

https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14687 doesn't work with 
.di
https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17699 breaks if you try 
to use it for its intended purpose
https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20563 error messages hit 
random problems
<can't find the link> all-at-once vs separate compilation of 
package leads to inconsistent reflection results

im sure the list went on if i spent a few more minutes looking 
for my archives)


> package.d is indeed completely unnecessary for creating a 
> module that publicly imports other modules in order to be able 
> to import a single module and get several modules.

Yeah, it is a terrible feature that is poorly designed, hackily 
implemented, and serves no legitimate use case.