RE: Caml toplevel thru Web (HTTP or CGI)?

RE: Caml toplevel thru Web (HTTP or CGI)?

[Frank A. Christoph]

>>> I would like to set a demo (available thru our intranet) usable
>> by anyone (people have Win95 PCs and Unix workstation). The most
>>> sexy approach would be a Ocaml (or even a tiny CAML subset)
>>> interactive toplevel interpreter thru Web (HTML forms).
>
>Great idea!!  I'd love to see such a product...however, wouldn't this
>take lots of research into building a CGI / HTML front-end (or something
>similiar) then implementing the OCaml back-end?  Could this turn into an
>open-source project?  I'd say "yes" for both questions.  Any other
>thoughts?

Open source project?  I don't think it's that big a project.  There are tons
of such front-ends on the web.  I don't know anything about CGI, but I
imagine all you need to do, if you use a forms-based interface, is to send
the input to ocamlc, compile it, redirect the error messages back if it
fails, or the output, if it typechecks.  Of course there are security
considerations.

Also, I have heard that there is an Ocaml plug-in for Netscape.  So another
option is to require people to use Netscape, have them install the plug-in,
and after a request is processed, send back the bytecode instead of the
output and execute it locally.  This would obviate security problems on the
server.

>>> Did anyone (ever) code such a thing?
>
>I've never heard of anything like this being out there -- but, then
>again, I'm fairly new to the OCaml world.

If you need an example, check out John Hughes' demonstration page for his
type-specializing partial evaluator:

http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~rjmh/TypedPE/README.html

I'm sure John would give you the relevant CGI code.  (It's probably written
in Haskell, though.)

--FC

RE: Caml toplevel thru Web (HTTP or CGI)?

[Sven]

what about MMM, and is ability to swallow ocaml applets ?

htere was even talk anbout a Netscape plugin for it.

Friendly,

Sven LUTHER

RE: Caml toplevel thru Web (HTTP or CGI)?

[Christopher Oliver]

Adam P. Jenkins <ajenkins@javanet.com> writes:

> My two cents.  Modifying the ocaml toplevel itself seems like too
> much unnecessary work to me to get an effect like this.
> ...
> Even if you do have to write it yourself, it will be more generally
> useful than a web-enabled OCaml toplevel.

Think instead of a programmatically controlled toplevel.  I've had
thoughts of a ML environment which is something like the LispM and
Smalltalk environments.  I think a toplevel which has hooks for
connecting command input and output to arbitrary routines rather
than simply a chunk of CURSES code would be quite tasty.  An expect
program or telnet has to differentiate between input and output
on the basis of string context, and that's easy to confuse.  I use
XEmacs/ILisp with CMUCL a fair bit, and sometimes despite being a
great shell, it gets lost.

Thoughts?

-- 
Christopher Oliver                     Traverse Internet
Systems Coordinator                    223 Grandview Pkwy, Suite 108
oliver@traverse.net                    Traverse City, Michigan, 49684
  "What good is a can of worms if you never open it?"  -Bob Arning

RE: Caml toplevel thru Web (HTTP or CGI)?

[Adam P. Jenkins]

My two cents.  Modifying the ocaml toplevel itself seems like too much
unnecessary work to me to get an effect like this.  If your server will be a
Unix machine, then the telnet approach that you mentioned seems much better
and more straightforward.  If you really want to make the O'Caml toplevel
appear on the web page as opposed to in a separate telnet window, you could
write a simple Java telnet client applet.  I would be kind of surprised if
there isn't already one around.  Even if you do have to write it yourself,
it will be more generally useful than a web-enabled OCaml toplevel.

--
Adam P. Jenkins
ajenkins@chainwave.com
Chainwave Systems, Inc.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pierre.Weis@inria.fr [mailto:Pierre.Weis@inria.fr]On Behalf Of
> Mitchell, Brian, VBAVACO
> Sent: Thursday, September 10, 1998 9:31 AM
> To: caml-list@inria.fr
> Cc: Mitchell, Brian, VBAVACO
> Subject: RE: Caml toplevel thru Web (HTTP or CGI)?
>
>
> >Basile STARYNKEVITCH wrote:
> >> I am an OCaml promoter inside my organization (thousands of
> >> physicists & numericians)
>
> Excellent!  I am also an OCaml promoter at my workplace (contractor for
> the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C.).
> >
> >> I would like to set a demo (available thru our intranet) usable
> > by anyone (people have Win95 PCs and Unix workstation). The most
> >> sexy approach would be a Ocaml (or even a tiny CAML subset)
> >> interactive toplevel interpreter thru Web (HTML forms).
>
> Great idea!!  I'd love to see such a product...however, wouldn't this
> take lots of research into building a CGI / HTML front-end (or something
> similiar) then implementing the OCaml back-end?  Could this turn into an
> open-source project?  I'd say "yes" for both questions.  Any other
> thoughts?
>
>
> >> Did anyone (ever) code such a thing?
>
> I've never heard of anything like this being out there -- but, then
> again, I'm fairly new to the OCaml world.
>
>
> Brian Mitchell
>
>
>
>

RE: Caml toplevel thru Web (HTTP or CGI)?

[Mitchell, Brian, VBAVACO]

>Basile STARYNKEVITCH wrote:
>> I am an OCaml promoter inside my organization (thousands of
>> physicists & numericians)

Excellent!  I am also an OCaml promoter at my workplace (contractor for
the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C.).
>
>> I would like to set a demo (available thru our intranet) usable
> by anyone (people have Win95 PCs and Unix workstation). The most 
>> sexy approach would be a Ocaml (or even a tiny CAML subset)
>> interactive toplevel interpreter thru Web (HTML forms).

Great idea!!  I'd love to see such a product...however, wouldn't this
take lots of research into building a CGI / HTML front-end (or something
similiar) then implementing the OCaml back-end?  Could this turn into an
open-source project?  I'd say "yes" for both questions.  Any other
thoughts?


>> Did anyone (ever) code such a thing?

I've never heard of anything like this being out there -- but, then
again, I'm fairly new to the OCaml world.


Brian Mitchell