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> Having separate module interface and module body files, as in Ada or Modula-2/3, is a great idea that sadly a lot of people are burnt out on because C and C++ do this in a very unprincipled way. > Having a terse little file where I can scan the interface of a module, rather than having to scroll through the implementation and see which declarations have `public` in front of them, is a great way to quickly refresh your mental model of a module's API.

Then there's the other-way of doing it: imagine a language with a database/browser (e.g. smalltalk), where the implementation is just linked and can be accessed in the-same/an-other window.

This sort of system could also have documentation-comments attached to the interface (e.g. for usage), and the implementation (e.g. for maintenance logging, rationale, etc).



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