Re: [Caml-list] Baby Steps (was: ChartPak - a data visualization library for the web)

[Michal Moskal <malekith@pld-linux.org>]

On Fri, Jan 24, 2003 at 01:35:55PM -0600, Brian Hurt wrote:
> 
> There is no argument (in my mind) that Ocaml is a better language than any 
> Functional-C hybrid.  That's not the question.  The question is wether 
> such a language stands a chance of getting programmers to start moving 
> towards a functional language.  

Well, my point when writing Gont was to create new super-hiper language
that is better then anything else.  Now I know I have failed.  Maybe
because making such hybrids isn't best idea, maybe because I don't have
enough experience/knowledge/time.

The main problem here is (I guess) the fact that creating real-life language 
takes lots of effort.  And it is not going to be funny to write language
that is only meant as learning tool for few business programmers.

[...]
> At this point, the people still using C are like the people who are still 
> using Cobol and Fortran.  They will be there until the day they die.  Note 
> that this isn't necessarily bad- C is in many ways a category killer 
> language.  For what I think C is good for (OSs, embedded code, and other 
> stuff banging on hardware) I cannot envision a language sufficiently 
> better than C to make it worthwhile to switch off of C for these 
> environments.  In these environments, C's pointer games and explicit 
> allocation is an *advantage*.  Despite the fact that they're disadvantages 
> just about everywhere else.
> 
> This means you're starting point isn't C.  It's C++ or Java.

Cyclone has all that pointer games (although improved and safer) and quite 
explicit storage management (using regions), which IMHO makes it very
(too?) complex.  It's starting point was definitely C.

My starting point was non-OO part of Java (i.e. parts borrowed from C
but without pointers and with GC).  Maybe it's good as a step between C
and ML but nobody is going to use it in real life project.

-- 
: Michal Moskal ::::: malekith/at/pld-linux.org :  GCS {C,UL}++++$ a? !tv
: PLD Linux ::::::: Wroclaw University, CS Dept :  {E-,w}-- {b++,e}>+++ h
-------------------
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