How to structure project in julia

[Henrique_Becker]

Sorry, late for the discussion, but let me give my two cents:

The best option is a mix of options 2 and 4, which by themselves are not really options I see someone considering.

@MacKa

2. Use include

Include file followed by .using

#file ModuleB.jl
module ModuleB.jl
include("ModuleA.jl")
using .ModuleA
...
end

This doesn’t work when more than one dependency includes the same file due to lack of include once semantics, there is no #pragma once or #ifdef to my knowledge, I rate this option as worse than C.

@MacKa

4. Create one monolithic file

Create one main julia file per project, all files are included into the monolith:

#file ModuleB.jl
module ModuleB.jl
# no dependencies declared here
...
end
#file Monolith.jl
include("ModuleA.jl")
include("ModuleB.jl")

Only downsides:

• modules can’t declare their dependencies
• files must be included in topological order
• files/modules become just inlines, they can’t be executed/tested in julia
• worse than C, it’s not 1970 anymore
• over my dead body option

A submodule should only be included where it appears in the hierarchy for an external user. If a package Graphs.jl has Graphs.Algorithms then Algorithms.jl should be included inside Graphs.jl, if it is Graphs.Utilities.Algorithms then then Algorithms.jl should be included inside Utilities.jl which is included inside Graphs.jl. In other words, include should be only used to build the unique hierarchy of the modules in the project, it is not a tool to load code that will just be called. What however, if Graphs.Experimental.Search needs to use some methods from Graphs.Utilities.Algorithms? Simple, in Search.jl you do:

import ...Utilities.Algorithms

See Modules · The Julia Language about the relative import syntax.

I structured a rather large package with all my code from my PhD following this system. Here is the main file: https://github.com/henriquebecker91/GuillotineModels.jl/blob/master/src/GuillotineModels.jl and here is the file of GuillotineModels.PPG2KP: https://github.com/henriquebecker91/GuillotineModels.jl/blob/master/src/PPG2KP/PPG2KP.jl Note that I did also started a new subfolder for each submodule that had submodules themselves to avoid clashes like two Algorithm.jl in a Graphs.Utilities.Algorithms and a Graphs.Experimental.Algorithms.