[Caml-list] referencing the signature inferred from a .mli file?

[Caml-list] referencing the signature inferred from a .mli file?

[Eric C. Cooper]

Suppose I extend an existing module, like the standard List module,
with some new functions:

list_extensions.ml:

  module List = struct
    (* Include standard List module. *)
    include List

    (* Add some extensions. *)
    let private_value = ...
    let public_value = ...
  end

As far as I can tell, I can't write a list_extensions.mli file without
textually including the standard List .mli file, which isn't very good
software engineering practice.

I would like to write something like

  module List :
    sig
      include_sig List
      val public_value : ...
    end

where "include_sig M" is equivalent to including the contents of
the corresponding .mli file for module M. (Maybe the "inherit" keyword
could be re-used for this purpose?)

It looks like Markus Mottl made a similar request in
http://caml.inria.fr/archives/200107/msg00259.html but I didn't see
any followup.

-- 
Eric C. Cooper          e c c @ c m u . e d u

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Re: [Caml-list] referencing the signature inferred from a .mli file?

[Jacques Garrigue]

From: "Eric C. Cooper" <ecc@cmu.edu>
> Suppose I extend an existing module, like the standard List module,
> with some new functions:
> 
[...]
> 
> As far as I can tell, I can't write a list_extensions.mli file without
> textually including the standard List .mli file, which isn't very good
> software engineering practice.

I'm not sure of what is good (or bad) software engineering.
However I'm convinced that this is a real pain.

I had a simple proposal: a .mli file would not only be used as a
constraint for the corresponding .ml file, but would also define
a signature of the same name.
Then you could simply write 
  sig include List ... end

But it has not been accepted yet...

Jacques Garrigue

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Re: [Caml-list] referencing the signature inferred from a .mli file?

[Markus Mottl]

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003, Jacques Garrigue wrote:
> I had a simple proposal: a .mli file would not only be used as a
> constraint for the corresponding .ml file, but would also define
> a signature of the same name.
> Then you could simply write 
>   sig include List ... end
> 
> But it has not been accepted yet...

Not yet - but hopefully soon? Please :-)

Regards,
Markus Mottl

-- 
Markus Mottl          http://www.oefai.at/~markus          markus@oefai.at

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Re: [Caml-list] referencing the signature inferred from a .mli file?

[Jean-Baptiste Rouquier]

>I had a simple proposal: a .mli file would not only be used as a
>constraint for the corresponding .ml file, but would also define
>a signature of the same name.
>Then you could simply write 
>  sig include List ... end
Yes, that would be great.
Jean-Baptiste.




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