[Caml-list] OCaml Standards Document

[Caml-list] OCaml Standards Document

[Sachin V. Shah]

Hello,

While trying to learn functional programming using OCaml, I
came across the following question: does OCaml have a
defined standard (formal or informal; such as ANSI/ISO C++
or RnRS Scheme).  I couldn't find anything about this on
the web.  The only other conclusion I can draw is that the
OCaml interpreter/compiler released by Inria forms the
standard itself.

Searching the web and e-mail archives does not help much. 
The word standard invariably brings up all documents
related to OCaml's standard library, which are a pain to
sort through.

While I would prefer a defined standard separate from any
one implementation, it is not a major problem.  In either
case, I'd like to know the answer to this question.

Regards,

Sachin.

P.S.: How do I subscribe to the mailing list.  I have
submitted messages to caml-list-request@inria.fr and to
Majordomo@pauillac.inria.fr, with no success.


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
http://calendar.yahoo.com

-------------------
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

Re: [Caml-list] OCaml Standards Document

[Xavier Leroy]

> While trying to learn functional programming using OCaml, I
> came across the following question: does OCaml have a
> defined standard (formal or informal; such as ANSI/ISO C++
> or RnRS Scheme).

Not really.  Chapter 6 of the reference manual ("The Objective Caml
language") was written with the intent of defining the OCaml language
and not just its current implementation, following the model of the RnRS.
This is apparent, for instance, in the fact that it explicitly says
that the evaluation order for some constructs is unspecified in the
language, while the implementation imposes a particular evaluation
order.

Still, chapter 6 is still a long way (in term of precision and ability
to reimplement the language from scratch) from a good informal
standard like RnRS.  Moreover, many users seem to find it more useful
for the documentation to describe the actual implementation in as much
details as possible, rather than an hypothetical "standardized"
subset...

> P.S.: How do I subscribe to the mailing list.  I have
> submitted messages to caml-list-request@inria.fr and to
> Majordomo@pauillac.inria.fr, with no success.

It helps if the e-mail address you subscribe to the list is the same
address you're subscribing from.

- Xavier Leroy

-------------------
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