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Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2003 12:41:21 -0400
To: caml-list@inria.fr
Subject: [Caml-list] referencing the signature inferred from a .mli file?
Message-ID: <20030907164121.GA15853@ecooper.com>
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From: "Eric C. Cooper" <ecc@cmu.edu>
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X-Spam: no; 0.00; inferred:01 mli:01 struct:01 mli:01 textually:01 val:01 200107:01 followup:01 caml:01 inherit:01 sig:01 sig:01 mottl:02 module:03 module:03 
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Suppose I extend an existing module, like the standard List module,
with some new functions:

list_extensions.ml:

  module List = struct
    (* Include standard List module. *)
    include List

    (* Add some extensions. *)
    let private_value = ...
    let public_value = ...
  end

As far as I can tell, I can't write a list_extensions.mli file without
textually including the standard List .mli file, which isn't very good
software engineering practice.

I would like to write something like

  module List :
    sig
      include_sig List
      val public_value : ...
    end

where "include_sig M" is equivalent to including the contents of
the corresponding .mli file for module M. (Maybe the "inherit" keyword
could be re-used for this purpose?)

It looks like Markus Mottl made a similar request in
http://caml.inria.fr/archives/200107/msg00259.html but I didn't see
any followup.

-- 
Eric C. Cooper          e c c @ c m u . e d u

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