Declinternal

Declinternal is a term encountered in programming language design discussions and in some sample code to describe a declaration whose visibility is restricted to the containing module or compilation unit. It is not a formal keyword in major languages, and its exact meaning varies by hypothetical language or documentation, but the general idea is to separate internal implementation details from the public API.

In this sense, a declinternal declaration is not exported outside its module. It may map to internal visibility, module-private scope, or internal linkage, depending on the language's model of modules and symbol visibility. This concept helps enforce encapsulation by limiting access to internal helpers, state, or configuration that should not be part of the public interface. It complements other visibility controls such as public, private, or protected.

Because declinternal is not standardized, real-world usage appears mostly in design notes, educational examples, or documentation illustrating the idea of an internal declaration. In actual languages, similar mechanisms exist under different names, such as internal in C# to restrict access to the containing assembly, or static and unnamed namespaces in C++ to limit linkage.

Example (hypothetical syntax): declinternal function computeCache() { ... } declinternal var defaultTimeout = 30

See also: internal visibility, module boundary, public API, internal linkage, access modifiers.