@end example
@noindent with @code{\paper}, @code{\midi} and @code{\header} being
-nested scope inside the .ly file-level scope. @w{@code{foo = 1}} is
-translated in to a scheme variable definition.
+nested scope inside the @file{.ly} file-level scope. @w{@code{foo = 1}}
+is translated in to a scheme variable definition.
This implemented using modules, with each scope being an anonymous
module that imports its enclosing scope's module.
-The reason to put some functions (@qq{builtin}) outside the .ly level,
-is that in case of
+Lilypond's core, loaded from @file{.scm} files, is usually placed in the
+@code{lily} module, outside the @file{.ly} level. In the case of
@example
lilypond a.ly b.ly
@end example
@noindent
-we want to reuse the built-in definitions, without changes
-effected in a.ly leaking into the processing of b.ly.
-
-Maintaining this scoping when one .ly file can be included in another
-.ly file can be challenging. A @code{define-public-toplevel} macro
-has been created in order to handle a difficulty caused by the modules
-being not the same when a .ly file is included into another.
-This provided a way to define all markup commands in the same module.
-At this time, we have found no easier way to define a function in a given
-module (not the current one) than to define this macro.
-
-With this architecture, the guile module system is not bypassed:
-module-define!, module-export! and module-ref are all guile module
-primitives.
-
-A second reason for using this current architecture is to avoid memory
-leaks that could occur when running multiple files if toplevel
-functions were registered permanently.
-
-
+we want to reuse the built-in definitions, without changes effected in
+user-level @file{a.ly} leaking into the processing of @file{b.ly}.
+
+The user-accessible definition commands have to take care to avoid
+memory leaks that could occur when running multiple files. All
+information belonging to user-defined commands and markups is stored in
+a manner that allows it to be garbage-collected when the module is
+dispersed, either by being stored module-locally, or in weak hash
+tables.