Re: [Caml-list] Re: Arithmetic operations

[Gerd Stolpmann <info@gerd-stolpmann.de>]

Am Donnerstag, den 31.03.2011, 09:56 +0200 schrieb Christophe Papazian:
> Selling cars without tires !
> 
> This is a huge problem of the ocaml community. Who wants a minimal  
> library ?
> What makes other languages popular ? There are huge API.
> For Ocaml, the main web site is just for the compiler, the ocaml hump  
> is refreshed
> each month with few new things. So I need to use as well godi (another  
> web site),
> batteries (still in progress, another web site), janestreet (another  
> solution, another
> web site). Everybody is making is own api, which is not very  
> interesting for the end user.
> 
> When I use python or latex, eveything is centralized, I pick the  
> packages I need, and all is done.
> Ocaml situation would be understandable if this was something new, but  
> after 15 years, it's just
> the french way : "We have good ideas, but we don't care how to sell  
> them".
> And this must be a reason why ocaml community is still small.

The problem is not the packaging of the software. Actually, we are doing
quite well, given that multiple organizations and individuals feel
responsible.

What is really French thinking is that centralism is good, btw. The
current situation is at least supporting some competition between
solutions. Whether there is one or several APIs is irrelevant as long as
they can be used together. In some sense, this is the "Linux" way of
doing it - only the core of the system is centralized, and for
everything else there is a free market.

We are not living in a time where it is easy to make a language popular.
If you are a company, you have to spend 100 of millions to make this
happen (see what Sun and Microsoft had to spend for their platforms).
And most of that goes into marketing, i.e. paying people for constantly
praising the product.

The main reason why the Ocaml community is small: Functional programming
is not widely taught at Universities (worldwide). Because of this, it
can still be ignored by the industry (remember the industry depends on
the knowledge of the graduates - and it's the graduates who create the
market for jobs, contrary to their own reception of the situation). 

Gerd



> 	Christophe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Le 30 mars 11 à 14:57, Dawid Toton a écrit :
> 
> >
> >> It would be so good if some missing operations on numbers could be
> >> added to the standard set : (...)
> >> The lack of those functions gives a feeling of immaturity of the
> >> language.
> >> Is it possible in some near futur release to add them ?
> > This is a matter of libraries, not the language. The standard library
> > coming with raw ocaml distribution is intended to be lightweight and
> > minimal. It is a library like core[1] or batteries[2] that should
> > provide the "standard set" of operations. You can consider filling a
> > feature request ticket.
> >
> > Dawid
> >
> > [1] http://ocaml.janestreet.com/?q=node/13
> > [2] http://batteries.forge.ocamlcore.org/
> >
> > -- 
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> > Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
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> >
> 
> 
> 


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