Using SomePackage: symbol doesn't import SomePackage in v0.7?

Internals & Design
1

I am just asking to clarify if this is intentional or a bug:

julia> VERSION
v"0.7.0-beta.44"

julia> using StatsBase: cov

julia> struct Foo end

julia> StatsBase.var(::Foo) = 42
ERROR: UndefVarError: StatsBase not defined
Stacktrace:
 [1] top-level scope at none:0

Cf: in v0.6, StatsBase is brought into scope.

2

In 0.6, packages got loaded into Main which is the same module the REPL is working in. This is no longer the case, they get loaded into a non-standard module behind the scenes. That is likely the cause of the difference, but not sure whether the current behavior is actually the desirable one.

3

Are you sure it has to do anything with Main? Eg one can get a similar error message by loading

module Bar
using StatsBase: cov
struct Foo end
StatsBase.var(::Foo) = 42
end
4

I think that @jeff.bezanson changed this so that using X: y doesn’t cause X to be imported anymore.

5

I think this actually makes sense, but it would be great to have it in NEWS.md.

Actually, the manual on modules has

The statement using BigLib: thing1, thing2 brings just the identifiers thing1 and thing2 into scope from module BigLib.

(my emphasis), so with a careful reading, this is indeed documented. But some extra emphasis would be useful.

Should I open an issue?

6

Yes, please!

7

Now I double-checked and I am not so sure that there is an issue.

module Bar
using StatsBase: cov
struct Foo end
StatsBase.var(::Foo) = 42
end

errors on both v0.6 and v0.7, while

using StatsBase: cov
struct Foo end
StatsBase.var(::Foo) = 42

only errors only on v0.7, but that is covered in the NEWS.md.