Re: [Caml-list] Dynamically evaluating OCaml code

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

On Tue, Apr 13, 2004 at 01:17:01PM +0200, Gerd Stolpmann wrote:
> You should have a look at GODI, http://www.ocaml-programming.de/godi,
> which is a caml distribution (although not very complete yet). However,
> GODI does not implement the "one big download" approach, but allows the
> user to select the packages he wants. The big advantage is that
> independent updates are possible. There is no disadvantage for the user
> because there is a nice user interface that hides the complex technical
> details.

Hi Gerd,

I've seen several references here to GODI and I checked it out.  I am
wearing several "hats" in this discussion; one of them is a developer
for Debian, and another is a developer, and another still is an end-user
of OCaml code.

>From the surface (and this is just from reading, not from actually
installing it), one problem I see with GODI is that it will not
necessarily play nice with an existing packaging system.  For instance,
if the user has installed OCaml and some libraries from Debian already,
but wants to add some others from GODI, it looks problematic.  Perl's
CPAN addresses this nicely (it will simply download things not already
present and install them in a separate directory).

Also, moving everything into ocamlfind may cause compatibility issues
for application developers that may be accustomed to not using ocamlfind
for certain libraries that are not normally distributed using ocamlfind.

Having said all that, I think that GODI is an excellent idea and sorely
needed.  I still maintain that installation of libraries and
applications in OCaml is way more difficult than it need be.

-- John

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