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 UAA10171; Wed, 15 Sep 2004 20:42:47 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id UAA10620 for ; Wed, 15 Sep 2004 20:42:46 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from nexus.stwing.upenn.edu (NEXUS.STWING.UPENN.EDU [165.123.132.61]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id i8FIgi6q032595 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL) for ; Wed, 15 Sep 2004 20:42:46 +0200 Received: from force.stwing.upenn.edu (force.stwing.upenn.edu [165.123.132.65]) by nexus.stwing.upenn.edu (8.12.10/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i8FIghwr020593 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL) for ; Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:42:43 -0400 (EDT) Received: from force.stwing.upenn.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by force.stwing.upenn.edu (8.12.10/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i8FIggh4022805 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:42:43 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from wlovas@localhost) by force.stwing.upenn.edu (8.12.10/8.12.9/Submit) id i8FIggqo022759 for caml-list@inria.fr; Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:42:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:42:41 -0400 From: William Lovas To: caml-list Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Confused Message-ID: <20040915184240.GB19620@force.stwing.upenn.edu> Mail-Followup-To: caml-list References: <41472EC6.2080007@gmx.net> <200409151428.54124.jon@jdh30.plus.com> <1095259945.27775.1034.camel@pelican.wigram> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1095259945.27775.1034.camel@pelican.wigram> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 41488D24.001 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Loop: caml-list@inria.fr X-Spam: no; 0.00; lovas:01 wlovas:01 stwing:01 caml-list:01 2004:99 newbies:01 outweigh:01 overloading:01 sep:01 syntax:02 o'caml:02 wrote:03 inherited:04 suspect:05 william:05 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Thu, Sep 16, 2004 at 12:52:26AM +1000, skaller wrote: > Basically this syntax is a 'hack' used by language > designers, overloading related syntactic forms to avoid > introducing new keywords and to make the language > 'more intuitive' - which usually backfires on newbies > and even experts at times. I suspect it was inherited from the original ML -- O'Caml could easily fix this "problem" without introducing any new keywords, but i think the costs outweigh the potential benefits. cheers, William ------------------- 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