dynload

The sole purpose of dynload is for doing initialization. For instance, val- and var-bindings introduced at the top-level need to be initialized properly.

Say a module named bar.dats exists and contains the following code:

val x = fact(5)

where fact is a factorial function, defined elsewhere.

Now, the value of [x] must be initialized and it is done in the dynload function (i.e., the initilization function) associated with module bar.dats. Say in a file named foo.dats, we have the following line:

dynload "bar.dats"

This line gets compiled to a call to the initialization function associated with bar.dats. Without this line, a link-time error message of the form "..._dynload_flag is undefined" is to be reported.

If you don't want the initialization function (generated automatically by the compiler for any .dats file) for bar.dats to be called, then please add the following line in bar.dats:

#define ATS_DYNLOADFLAG 0

Please do this with caution.

Normally, dynload lines should only occur in the file that contains the implementation of the main function [1]