From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id XAA13547; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:33:28 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id XAA13762; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:33:27 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from gatekeeper.elmer.external.excelhustler.com (gatekeeper.excelhustler.com [68.99.114.105]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i3NLXQjq029774; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:33:26 +0200 Received: from chatterbox.elmer.internal.excelhustler.com (unknown [192.168.0.12]) (using TLSv1 with cipher EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA (168/168 bits)) (Client CN "chatterbox.elmer.internal.excelhustler.com", Issuer "excelhustler.com" (not verified)) by gatekeeper.elmer.external.excelhustler.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id A1FE6E013F; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:33:25 -0500 (CDT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by chatterbox.elmer.internal.excelhustler.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 673835C006; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:33:25 -0500 (CDT) Received: from wile.internal.excelhustler.com (wile.internal.excelhustler.com [192.168.1.34]) by chatterbox.elmer.internal.excelhustler.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 39C665C005; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:33:25 -0500 (CDT) Received: by wile.internal.excelhustler.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 33E2D7028; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:33:25 -0500 (CDT) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:33:25 -0500 From: John Goerzen To: Maxence Guesdon Cc: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] [ANN] The Missing Library Message-ID: <20040423213325.GF6783@excelhustler.com> References: <20040423185148.GA4434@excelhustler.com> <20040423195206.GA27257@tallman.kefka.frap.net> <20040423202342.GA5962@excelhustler.com> <20040423223611.33ef1c08@haddock.max.fr> <20040423211003.GD6783@excelhustler.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable In-Reply-To: <20040423211003.GD6783@excelhustler.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.5.1+cvs20040105i X-Scanned-By: clamscan at chatterbox.elmer.internal.excelhustler.com X-Miltered: at nez-perce by Joe's j-chkmail ("http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr")! X-Loop: caml-list@inria.fr X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 2004:99 2004:99 maxence:01 guesdon:01 featureful:01 cough:01 extlib:01 ocaml:01 ocaml:01 irrelevant:01 0200,:01 sockets:01 ecrivait:02 modules:02 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Fri, Apr 23, 2004 at 04:10:03PM -0500, John Goerzen wrote: > On Fri, Apr 23, 2004 at 10:36:11PM +0200, Maxence Guesdon wrote: > > Dans son style inimitable, John Goerzen =E9crivait: > >=20 > > > But the fact that these libraries exist is, at its heart, a symptom of > > > the problems with the OCaml standard library. > >=20 > > I'm getting bored of this song. What about this one : > > "The number of extlibs is a symptom of the problems with the > > community of OCaml users" ? >=20 > You view it as a problem that some in the OCaml community would like to > see a more featureful and easy to use standard library? Why? Let me expand on this a bit. It is clear that people are unsatisfied with the quality of the standard library and that others have been able to provide useful features (*cough* IPv6 and other basic Unix calls) far sooner than Inria has. Why are you oppsed to this? There are some things that will work fine with a system such as GODI once it gets a little more mature. My ConfigParser module, for instance, has no need to be in the standard library (OTOH, there's no need for it to be outside it either, but I don't care either way on that if GODI continues improving.) But what about the C Extlib's expanded support for sockets and IPv6? I can either use its support, or the standard Unix module. If I choose the standard Unix module, I have compatibility with other OCaml code written by others, but I lack IPv6. If I choose the C Extlib module, all my I/O is tied to that module.=20 A plethora of mutually-incompatible modules that duplicate and extend standard library features is in nobody's interest. The result will be an irrelevant standard library and a fragmented development community. -- John ------------------- 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