From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id RAA06266; Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:54:50 +0100 (MET) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA06593 for ; Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:54:49 +0100 (MET) Received: from saul.cis.upenn.edu (SAUL.CIS.UPENN.EDU [158.130.12.4]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id h1OGsmT06348 for ; Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:54:48 +0100 (MET) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by saul.cis.upenn.edu (8.12.5/8.12.5) with SMTP id h1OGsnqO014398 for ; Mon, 24 Feb 2003 11:54:49 -0500 (EST) To: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: [Caml-list] Alternative proposal: COAN Reply-to: bcpierce@cis.upenn.edu Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 11:54:48 EST Message-ID: <14397.1046105688@saul.cis.upenn.edu> From: "Benjamin C. Pierce" Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk Although I share the impulse behind the recent discussions about improving the standard library, I wonder if it is actually missing the main point: there are *already* lots of improvements on the standard library out there -- the Unison project has one; probably there are at least a dozen better ones out there -- but nobody can find them! This leads to an idea for a different way of soaking up people's hacking energies... :-) The single thing that I think would make the biggest difference for the OCaml community is a central repository for OCaml source code -- something analogous to the CPAN archive for PERL modules. I'm aware of all the thorny problems involved in really doing something like this "right" for OCaml, but frankly I'd rather have something simple and useful, now, than the right thing, someday. The CDK was an impressive attempt to do the right thing, but it was too ambitious and sank under its own weight. The minimal functionality that seems needed is something like this: - a single repository (on somebody's web server, or maybe SourceForge) where stuff lives - an easy way for authors to upload stuff to the repository (and to re-upload new versions of their stuff) - an easy way for users to browse and download stuff - some way (at least informal) to indicate dependencies between one thing and another in the repository Of course, much more functionality could be imagined and wished for (e.g., a machine-readable representation of dependencies, provisions for mutiple versions, standard installation procedures, documentation standards, etc., etc.), but all that can be added later, in light of experience. For now, let's let a thousand flowers bloom... and just encourage them to bloom in the same garden! - Benjamin ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- BENJAMIN C. PIERCE, Professor Dept. of Computer & Information Science bcpierce@cis.upenn.edu University of Pennsylvania +1 215 898-2012 200 South 33rd St. Fax: +1 215 898-0587 Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners