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 0Please do this with caution.
Normally, 'dynload' lines should only occur in the file that contains the implementation of the 'main' function [1]