The following scopes (namespaces) are defined:

• Each module has its own global scope.
• Each function has its own local scope.
• In a class definition, the scope is the class namespace.

The global assignment := operator inserts variables to the module's global namespace.

a = 1
def globalAssign()
    a := 2
end
globalAssign()
print a

Output:

2

Built-in function locals() returns the local namespace as a record.

# script "test.ds"
a = 'hello'; b = 'world'
print locals()

Output:

__file__:/src/test.ds
a:       hello
b:       world

The import keyword is used to import modules. All built-in modules and all script files on the import path are available for importing.

import App

When a module is first imported, its global namespace is initialized by executing all statements in the module's global scope. All modules that then import the module will receive a reference to the same record.

The import statement can also be used to make a copy instead of regular importing.

import record other

This imports other (from a file called other.ds somewhere on the import path), makes an owned copy of the record, and assigns it to a local variable named other. It is equivalent to the following:

import other
other = Record(other)