<p>In Oberon, top-level declarations are private by default and only accessible

to the containing module. If you want to make a declaration public, you mark

the declaration with an asterisk:</p>

<p>Here, the <code>*</code> after <code>PROCEDURE SayHello</code> means that <code>SayHello</code> is public. Note

that this marker is only at the declaration. It&rsquo;s not part of the name. At

<p>This is declaring a private <code>+</code> function. It would probably look equally weird

to have <code>*</code> after the name in a record declaration:</p>

<div class="highlight"><pre><code class="language-vgs" data-lang="vgs"><span class="k">rec</span> <span class="t">Vec</span><span class="o">*</span>

<span class="k">end</span>

<p>That led me to thinking the sigil should be by the declaration keyword. In my

language, every declaration form does start with a leading keyword (unlike, say,

C where function declarations don&rsquo;t have one), so it&rsquo;s feasible. Something like:</p>

<div class="highlight"><pre><code class="language-vgs" data-lang="vgs"><span class="k">rec</span><span class="o">*</span> <span class="t">Vec</span>

<span class="k">end</span>

<span class="k">def</span><span class="o">*</span> <span class="i">sayHi</span><span class="p">()</span>

<p>That led to my last idea which I can&rsquo;t decide if I like or not. Given Python and

Dart, it seems like underscore vaguely conveys &ldquo;private&rdquo; to some people. So

maybe use that? It looks like:</p>

<span class="k">end</span>

<span class="i">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;Hello!&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="k">end</span>

<title>journal.stuffwithstuff.com</title>

<link href="http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/"/>

<link type="application/atom+xml" rel="self" href="http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/atom.xml"/>

<id>http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/</id>

<author>

<name>Robert Nystrom</name>

&lt;p&gt;In Oberon, top-level declarations are private by default and only accessible

to the containing module. If you want to make a declaration public, you mark

the declaration with an asterisk:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here, the &lt;code&gt;*&lt;/code&gt; after &lt;code&gt;PROCEDURE SayHello&lt;/code&gt; means that &lt;code&gt;SayHello&lt;/code&gt; is public. Note

that this marker is only at the declaration. It&amp;rsquo;s not part of the name. At

&lt;p&gt;This is declaring a private &lt;code&gt;+&lt;/code&gt; function. It would probably look equally weird

to have &lt;code&gt;*&lt;/code&gt; after the name in a record declaration:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class=&quot;highlight&quot;&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;language-vgs&quot; data-lang=&quot;vgs&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;k&quot;&gt;rec&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class=&quot;t&quot;&gt;Vec&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;o&quot;&gt;*&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class=&quot;k&quot;&gt;end&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That led me to thinking the sigil should be by the declaration keyword. In my

language, every declaration form does start with a leading keyword (unlike, say,

C where function declarations don&amp;rsquo;t have one), so it&amp;rsquo;s feasible. Something like:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class=&quot;highlight&quot;&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;language-vgs&quot; data-lang=&quot;vgs&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;k&quot;&gt;rec&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;o&quot;&gt;*&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class=&quot;t&quot;&gt;Vec&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class=&quot;k&quot;&gt;end&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class=&quot;k&quot;&gt;def&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;o&quot;&gt;*&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class=&quot;i&quot;&gt;sayHi&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;p&quot;&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That led to my last idea which I can&amp;rsquo;t decide if I like or not. Given Python and

Dart, it seems like underscore vaguely conveys &amp;ldquo;private&amp;rdquo; to some people. So

maybe use that? It looks like:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;span class=&quot;k&quot;&gt;end&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class=&quot;i&quot;&gt;print&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;p&quot;&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;s&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Hello!&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;p&quot;&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class=&quot;k&quot;&gt;end&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;