..
   This file is part of Logtalk <https://logtalk.org/>  
   Copyright 1998-2021 Paulo Moura <pmoura@logtalk.org>
   SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.


.. index:: pair: public/1; Directive
.. _directives_public_1:

``public/1``
============

Description
-----------

::

   public(Name/Arity)
   public((Name/Arity, ...))
   public([Name/Arity, ...])

   public(Name//Arity)
   public((Name//Arity, ...))
   public([Name//Arity, ...])

   public(op(Precedence,Associativity,Operator))
   public((op(Precedence,Associativity,Operator), ...))
   public([op(Precedence,Associativity,Operator), ...])

Declares public predicates, public grammar rule non-terminals, and public
operators. A public predicate can be called from any object. A public
non-terminal can be used as an argument in :ref:`methods_phrase_2` and
:ref:`methods_phrase_3` calls from any object. Declaring a public operator
does not make it global when the entity holding the scope directive is
compiled and loaded. But declaring public operators provides a reusable
specification for using them in the entity clients.

Template and modes
------------------

::

   public(+predicate_indicator_term)
   public(+non_terminal_indicator_term)
   public(+operator_declaration)

Examples
--------

::

   :- public(ancestor/1).

   :- public((instance/1, instances/1)).

   :- public([leaf/1, leaves/1]).

.. seealso::

   :ref:`directives_private_1`,
   :ref:`directives_protected_1`,
   :ref:`methods_predicate_property_2`
