From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E443BC69 for ; Sat, 12 May 2007 11:20:06 +0200 (CEST) Received: from dedibox1.ambre.net (dedibox1.ambre.net [88.191.29.66]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id l4C9K5G6030939 for ; Sat, 12 May 2007 11:20:05 +0200 Received: from [192.168.0.1] (lau18-1-82-246-197-195.fbx.proxad.net [82.246.197.195]) by dedibox1.ambre.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id D405F114C154 for ; Sat, 12 May 2007 11:19:53 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Re: [Caml-list] labltk for tk 8.4 BETA release From: David Teller To: OCaml In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Date: Sat, 12 May 2007 11:19:52 +0200 Message-Id: <1178961592.12219.31.camel@Blefuscu> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.10.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 464586C5.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail . ensmp . fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; labltk:01 ens-lyon:01 labltk:01 ocaml's:01 ocaml's:01 ocaml:01 mli:01 camlimages:01 lablgl:01 ocaml:01 camlimages:01 lablgtk:01 installers:01 cheers:01 otherlibs:01 That's a very good initiative. In my mind, a few other things are missing in LablTk. * Ease of installation. At the moment, beginners who wish to use LablTk under Windows (or who are pressed to do this by, say, their teacher) must first find and install the correct version by inferring the location of the installer from an erroneous link hidden in the fine print of the documentation of LablTk [1]. As Tk is so important, i'm not sure why Tk is not bundled with OCaml's Windows version. I suggest either bundling it or at least providing an (up-to-date) link from OCaml's official download page [2]. * Documentation At the moment, LablTk has virtually no documentation. The page in the manual is barely an overview and suggests reading the documentation of Tcl/Tl. Which is all fine and good, except that it doesn't help with types, I can't for the life of me remember how I found out that type ~~ color ~~ is actually a polymorphic variant ~~ `Color of string ~~ and beginners who learn OCaml as their first or second programming language will never manage that much. I suggest including a LablTk tutorial, perhaps inspired of [3] and actually ocamldocumenting the .mli . * Other libraries Ok, I might be asking a lot, but I personally consider that Graphics is half-useless without CamlImages. I also consider that LablGl is a good way to demonstrate the power of OCaml to students and perhaps to bring them to something like game programming in OCaml. It requires CamlImages for textures. The list could continue with LablGtk and plenty of others but these two would be my personal priority. Consequently, in my mind, both should be easy to install at the same time as OCaml, which is not the case at the moment. Again, under Linux, that's not much of a problem. Under Windows (and perhaps Mac OS X), it is very much so. I don't suggest providing a package manager under Windows and I do know about GODI but I also know that students will never be bothered to install GODI. What I do suggest is just either adding inside OCaml's Windows installer the option to add "extension libraries", with a short description of what each extension does, or providing links to binary installers from OCaml's download page. What do you think ? Cheers, David [1] http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-ocaml/manual042.html [2] http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/release.en.html [3] http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/class/sp07/cs421/resources/labltk/ On Fri, 2007-05-11 at 22:56 -0400, Jeffrey Loren Shaw wrote: > Dear Ocaml-ers, > > I've updated labltk to use some new widgets and commands that are available > in Tk 8.4. > > DIRECTIONS: > get the ocaml 3.10 beta release > extract the ocaml beta archive > replace otherlibs/labltk with the one from the following link > http://www.msu.edu/~shawjef3/labltk-8.4-BETA1.zip > > configure, make world, make install > > This is a BETA release, meaning that I believe I've implemented all the new > features, but I haven't tested them much. > > Here are my additions to the changelog: > > 2007-05-11 (*BETA release from shawjef3@msu.edu*) > ---------- > *labltk now requires Tk 8.4 > *added spinbox widget > *added TkConsole module > *added labelframe widget > *added panedwindow widget > *added functions tk_textCopy, tk_textCut, tk_text_Paste to the text widget > *Removed CamlTk > *Removed tkanim (depended on Camltk) > *Removed Frx (Depended on Camltk) > *Removed examples_camltk (Depended on Camltk) > > Please note that this is an unofficial release. I'm not affiliated with the > ocaml development team. > > Enjoy! > Jeff > > _______________________________________________ > Caml-list mailing list. Subscription management: > http://yquem.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/caml-list > Archives: http://caml.inria.fr > Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners > Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs