A module is a set of slots
- A module can add whole objects, but can also add new slots to existing objects.
- Each slot names the module it belongs to.
- User interface shows slot summaries; exposing annotation shows a slot's module.
A module is a set of slots
What is in a module? Although a module adds objects to a system, it can also add slots to existing objects. For example, a module to find palindromes might add a slot to traits string called isPalindrome, with a method in the slot.Hence, the granularity of a module is an individual slot; each slot's annotation names its module, which gives the name of the source file containing the code that is responsible for recreating that slot in a new snapshot.
This implies that one object may be built incrementally as the result of reading several files, and so the transporter endeavors to keep the order that the files are read in as independent as possible.
Since each object can possess slots in different modules, the user interface shows a summary of the modules of an object, sorted by frequency. By using the 'Show Annotation' menu item on a slot, we can find out and change a slot's module. We can also use the 'Set module...' menu item on a slot to set its module, or the 'Set module...' menu item on an object to set the module of many slots in the object.