For me, this is of interest: Austral’s module system is inspired by those of Ada, Modula-2, and Standard ML, with the restriction that there are no generi

For me, this is of interest: Austral’s module system is inspired by those of Ada, Modula-2, and Standard ML, with the restriction that there are no generic modules (as in Ada or Modula-3) or functors (as in Standard ML or OCaml), that is: all modules are first-order. Modules are given explicit names and are not tied to any particular file system structure. Modules are split in two textual parts (effectively two files), a module interface and a module body, with strict separation between the two. The declarations in the module interface file are accessible from without, and the declarations in the module body file are private. Crucially, a module A that depends on a module B can be typechecked when the compiler only has access to the interface file of module B. That is: modules can be typechecked against each other before being implemented. This allows system interfaces to be designed up-front, and implemented in parallel. It was a mistake how C++, Java and other languages forgot to split interface declaration from implementation definition, IMHO. Good to see that Austral learned from Modula-2. Before I can form an opinion regarding Austral, though, I would need to see some larger programs implemented in it, for instance some low-level systems code, a generic data structure, some high-level business logic.