* before identifier

[Naveg]

I've seen a * used before an identifier before while reading other people's code. like...var *person:string. What does this do?

[Delos]

The * is the short form for "pervasive". This means that the variable is...umm..universal, and needn't be imported into an modules or other such containers within a proggie.

Try it:

code:

var superVar : string := "Muwahahaha" module test export main proc main put superVar end main end test test.main

Try run that. It crashes. Now add a "*" infront of 'superVar'. Run again. Magic.
This becomes more useful when you need to programme things that get really complicated and require a large number of classes and modules and other such object-type thingies.

[Naveg]

that only happens if you export?

[Delos]

Not the exporting part...add the line

code:

import superVar

to the beginning of the module and leave the variable as non-pervasive. There you go...manual importation of req'd vars. Once again, the uses may not seem apparent...