The value of the alias attribute is passed to the make_alias() method of the execution context. The return value is then used as the generated name (5.2.3.4) attribute.
The execution context make_alias() method splits the alias attribute at the last '.' and resolves the left hand side to an object reference. The albatross_alias() method is then called on that object and the result is combined with the '.' and the right hand side of the of the alias attribute to produce the generated name attribute. The resolved object is entered in the the local namespace and the session using the name returned by the albatross_alias() method.
Refer to the documentation of the alias attribute of the <al-input> tag (5.2.2.1) for an example of the mechanism described above.