Re: [Caml-list] Re: Cherry-picking modules (was Re: [ANN] OCaml Reins 0.1 - Persistent Data Structure Library)

[skaller <skaller@users.sourceforge.net>]

On Tue, 2007-09-25 at 23:33 +0000, Sylvain Le Gall wrote:
> On 25-09-2007, Daniel Bünzli <daniel.buenzli@epfl.ch> wrote:

> Anyway, embeding any external code into your project is a nightmare for
> security/maintenance in the long term... I would avoid this solution if
> i want things that doesn't have problem.

Embedding source is generally better, unfortunately,
if you're distributing a product for other people to use.

This is because 

1. people use crappy build systems 
2. have unnecessary dependencies
3. don't maintain their code 'reliably' and/or don't provide
  repository (write) access

Apart from Python and Ocaml itself (and an unfortunate need for
a C++ compiler) my product has no external dependencies,
and it builds on all platforms I know about *as shipped*.

My rule for Ocaml code is simple: either it is shipped in the 
standard distro or it is shipped in mine. People have enough
problems getting Ocaml and C++ to work without adding second order
dependencies.

Hopefully (1) will eventually be solved by ocamlbuild, however
it still isn't really reliable/do the right thing, and doesn't
work on Windows. We provide it as an option: if ocamlbuild is
found it is used -- I have to keep turning it off though,
because it isn't compatible with our other build scripts 
(fails sanitise checks, probably our _tags etc aren't right yet).


-- 
John Skaller <skaller at users dot sf dot net>
Felix, successor to C++: http://felix.sf.net