Re: [Caml-list] The DLL-hell of O'Caml

[Jacques Garrigue <garrigue@kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp>]

Hi,

> On my linux-machine I use the CDK with ocaml-3.03ALPHA.

Then you should upgrade. As shown by its name, this is an alpha release,
whose compatibility with future releases is not guaranteed.
If I remember correctly, it names DLLs differently from 3.04,
and you should scrape it away before installing 3.04, lest you get
into lots of trouble.

> This is the installation history:
> 1. Needs Ocaml 3.03 -> updated CDK using CVS (there are no tarballs
> but I have a broadband-connection).
> 2. Ocamlnet missing -> downloaded ocamlnet-0.92
> 3. Failed to install ocamlnet, since the PCRE in the CDK seems to
> be to old.
> 4. Installed a new PCRE.
> 5. Tried to install ocamlnet again, however failed with 
> 	"unbound type constructor Mimestring.s_param"
> 
>    Probably something else is too old...I got bored...
>    ...never got back to try to install WDialog....

I sympathize...

> I know 3 solutions to the problem:
> 1. CDK
> 2. Gerd invented findlib to solve the above problem.
> 3. Adding good packages to the standard distribution,
>    so that mostly packages doesn't depend on other
>    packages, but on packages in the standard
>    distribution. (But very few if any new packages
>    are added to the distribution.)

Personally, I think that the combination of (1) and (2) could help a
lot. Make the powerful findlib a standard. Then it would probably end
up one day in the standard distribution...
I would add also the role of the O'Caml link database, which is
particularly nice as authors can update themselve their information.

Adding packages to the standard distribution could easily make it
huge. It is already not so small. Note also the tendancy to have n
libraries for the same goal, which just reflects how people are
interested just as much in how it is done as what is done.

(I know, I should start by using findlib for my libraries.
But like everybody else, I'm lazy...)

It will still be difficult to get things as smooth as in Perl: strong
typing is good at detecting problem early, so early that it won't let
you compile some code because of a single function you don't need
anyway.
Here is a more theoretical problem: how to determine the cause of a
compilation error, whether this is some change in the language, or in
a library, and which library.

Cheers,

Jacques Garrigue
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