2 Anatomy of a modular application

It does not explain these topics in detail, though! Chapters 3, 4, and 5 do that—they explore all of them in depth. But with a topic as encompassing as the module system it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees. That’s why this chapter shows you the big picture. It gives you an impression of how the different pieces of the puzzle fit together by presenting a simple modular application, how its modules are defined and compiled and how the application is executed.

That means I make you jump into the deep end here: Not everything that follows might be immediately obvious. But don’t worry if something’s unclear—it will be thoroughly explained soon. When you’re done with part one of this book, everything in this example will make perfect sense. So dog-ear these pages—you might want to refer back to them.

2.1  Introducing the ServiceMonitor

2.2  Modularizing the ServiceMonitor

2.2.1  Cutting the ServiceMonitor into modules

2.2.2  Laying files out in a directory structure

2.2.3  Declaring and describing modules

2.2.4  Writing code is much like before

2.2.5  Compiling and packaging modules

2.2.6  Running the ServiceMonitor

2.2.7  Extending a modular code base

2.3  Post mortem—effects of the module system

2.3.1  What the module system does for us

2.3.2  What else the module system can do for us

2.4  Summary