what am i missing here? How do properly split this code into logical chunks of separate files, but keeping namespace "main"?

There's nothing particularly "proper" about splitting the code into separate files. You keep things in main by writing subroutines, not by fragmenting the codebase and then struggling to unify it. One program should be one file, unless the "parts" are truly going to be reused by other programs (which they usually are not).

In reply to Re: Splitting program into modules by Anonymous Monk
in thread Splitting program into modules by lis128

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