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Modules

Each .be or .bee file is a module. The .be/.bee extension is added automatically, and dotted names map to sub-directories (a.b.c → a/b/c.bee).

import name looks, in order, in:

  1. the importing file's own directory
  2. its sibling lib/ folder
  3. hive_modules/ in that directory and every directory above it - packages installed by Hive, the package manager
  4. each entry of $BEE_PATH (;-separated on Windows, : elsewhere)
  5. the global package library, $HIVE_HOME/lib (default ~/.hive/lib)

Local code therefore wins over an installed package of the same name. A directory found this way is treated as a package: the module loaded is the "main" named by its hive.json, or else init.bee.

mathutil.bee: 

let PI = 3.14159265358979

fn square(x) { return x * x }

Importing it:

import mathutil                      # bind the module object as `mathutil`
print(mathutil.square(5))            # 25
print(mathutil.PI)

import mathutil as m                 # bind under an alias
print(m.square(6))

from mathutil import square          # bring specific names into scope
print(square(7))

from mathutil import square as sq    # ... with an alias
print(sq(8))

from mathutil import *               # bring in all public names
print(square(9))

from … import * skips names beginning with _ (treat those as private). Circular imports are tolerated (a module is cached as soon as it starts loading).

To use somebody else's module, install it with hive install <name> and import it by name - see the Hive guide.

A module can also be native: a shared library written in C++ (or generated from a C++ header by beegen) imports exactly like a .bee file. See the bindings guide.