### 9.4 Scopes

The root of the entire intermediate representation is the variable `global_namespace`. This is the namespace specified with `::` in C++ source code. All other namespaces, types, variables, functions, and so forth can be found starting with this namespace.

Besides namespaces, the other high-level scoping construct in C++ is the class. (Throughout this manual the term class is used to mean the types referred to in the ANSI/ISO C++ Standard as classes; these include types defined with the `class`, `struct`, and `union` keywords.)