wish

wish

[Ken Wakita]

Following is my tiny wish list:

1. compilers and other tools ignore the staring #! line (for
   compatibility with the ocamlrun's scripting support)

2. compilers and other tools recognize "-i <subdir>" options that
   specifies the include subdirectories relative to the standard
   library path (e.g., "ocamlc -i labltk"
   instead of "ocamlc -I /usr/local/lib/ocaml-3.00/labltk").

Ken Wakita

Re: wish

[Ian Zimmerman]

Ken> 2. compilers and other tools recognize "-i <subdir>" options that
Ken> specifies the include subdirectories relative to the standard
Ken> library path (e.g., "ocamlc -i labltk" instead of "ocamlc -I
Ken> /usr/local/lib/ocaml-3.00/labltk").

This is already possible with Stolpmann's findlib.

-- 
Ian Zimmerman, Oakland, California, U.S.A.
EngSoc adopts market economy: cheap is wasteful, efficient is expensive.

Re: wish

[Ken Wakita]

In message (<861yuvd160.fsf@itz.dsl.speakeasy.net>)
from Ian Zimmerman <itz@speakeasy.org>,
talking about "Re: wish",
on 26 Dec 2000 00:41:59 -0800

> Ken> 2. compilers and other tools recognize "-i <subdir>" options that
> Ken> specifies the include subdirectories relative to the standard
> Ken> library path (e.g., "ocamlc -i labltk" instead of "ocamlc -I
> Ken> /usr/local/lib/ocaml-3.00/labltk").
> 
> This is already possible with Stolpmann's findlib.

Right.  Actually I sometimes use findlib and I feel comfortable with
it.  But I am reluctant to use it in a project that I intend to
distribute to others simply because findlib is not part of the
standard distribution.  My proposal is simple and easy to use.  For
instance, building a multithreaded GTk-based GUI application can be
done by:

	ocamlopt -o <executable> -i lablgtk -i threads <source>

which is more pleasant than

	ocamlopt -o <executable> \
		-I /usr/local/lib/ocaml-3.00/lablgtk \
		-I /usr/local/lib/ocaml-3.00/threads <source>

I was very glad that ocaml-3.00 reuses linking information stored in
libraries (.cma and .cmxa).  This feature removed most of the long and
ugly --ccopt and --cclib options from my Makefiles's.  I guess my
proposal is along this spirit and steps little bit further.

The same (and probably more intelligent stuff) can be done by using
findlib.  But I suppose it is easier to convince INRIA people to
include my simple proposal in the standard distribution than findlib.

Ken Wakita

Re: wish

[Pierre Weis]

[...]
> standard distribution.  My proposal is simple and easy to use.  For
> instance, building a multithreaded GTk-based GUI application can be
> done by:
> 
> 	ocamlopt -o <executable> -i lablgtk -i threads <source>
> 
> which is more pleasant than
> 
> 	ocamlopt -o <executable> \
> 		-I /usr/local/lib/ocaml-3.00/lablgtk \
> 		-I /usr/local/lib/ocaml-3.00/threads <source>
[...]
> 
> Ken Wakita

Are you aware of the new + option to -I recently added to the
compiler working sources? It allows to write:

       ocamlopt -o <executable> -I +lablgtk -I +threads <source>

isn't it what you wanted ?

Hope this helps,

Pierre Weis

INRIA, Projet Cristal, Pierre.Weis@inria.fr, http://pauillac.inria.fr/~weis/

Re: wish

[Ken Wakita]

In message (<200012271804.TAA22563@pauillac.inria.fr>)
from Pierre Weis <Pierre.Weis@inria.fr>,
talking about "Re: wish",
on Wed, 27 Dec 2000 19:04:14 +0100 (MET)

> Are you aware of the new + option to -I recently added to the
> compiler working sources? It allows to write:
> 
>        ocamlopt -o <executable> -I +lablgtk -I +threads <source>
> 
> isn't it what you wanted ?
> 
> Hope this helps,

No, I didn't know it.  This is what I wanted.  Thank you for this
information.

I hope the same convention is followed by the ocamlbrowser.  And also
that ocamlbrowser disclude the standard library path when given -I
options:

  ocamlbrowser:                  standard library path
  ocamlbrowser -I +lablgtk:      lablgtk only
  ocamlbrowser -I + -I +lablgtk: standard library path and lablgtk

This feature sounds a bit odd but is convenient for experienced O'Caml
programmers to examine APIs of non-standard packages.

Ken