From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id D5FD3BC48 for ; Mon, 7 Mar 2005 01:19:48 +0100 (CET) Received: from ptb-relay03.plus.net (ptb-relay03.plus.net [212.159.14.214]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id j270JmAr004244 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 7 Mar 2005 01:19:48 +0100 Received: from [80.229.56.224] (helo=chetara) by ptb-relay03.plus.net with esmtp (Exim) id 1D85yO-000FdR-4b for caml-list@yquem.inria.fr; Mon, 07 Mar 2005 00:19:48 +0000 From: Jon Harrop Organization: Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd. To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] MinCaml: an educational compiler for tiny ML subset (documented in Japanese) Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 00:20:53 +0000 User-Agent: KMail/1.7.1 References: <20050303.172652.36931998.eijiro_sumii@anet.ne.jp> <200503050832.42927.jon@jdh30.plus.com> <20050305.093742.46637291.eijiro_sumii@anet.ne.jp> In-Reply-To: <20050305.093742.46637291.eijiro_sumii@anet.ne.jp> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200503070020.53784.jon@jdh30.plus.com> X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 422B9E24.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 compiler:01 subset:01 eijiro:01 sumii:01 compiler:01 compilers:01 suitably:01 subset:01 polymorphism:01 garbage:01 syntax:01 ocaml:01 inference:01 higher-order:01 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.2 (2004-11-16) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.0.2 X-Spam-Level: On Saturday 05 March 2005 14:37, Eijiro Sumii wrote: > From: "Jon Harrop" > > Did you choose SPARC because of availability or for technical reasons? > > Both - Sun is still strong in universities around me and IA-32 is a > mess (for me, at least) compared to RISC... Yes indeed! :-) Are you interested in commercialising this project? I think that many companies would be interested in a mini compiler which they could customise themselves, e.g. to create JIT compilers, or to have a decent embedded language. Obviously this would require more work but I do not believe it would take someone (suitably talented, such as yourself) very long. > > What features of ML are implemented? > > Only a _very_ tiny subset: for now, it does not have polymorphism, > data types, modules, nor garbage collection (so I shouldn't even call > it ML, except that the syntax is a subset of OCaml). However, it > _does_ have type inference, I'd prioritise data types next, and pattern matching (of course) if that is not implemented already. > higher-order functions, floating-point > numbers, tuples, and arrays with destructive update - which are > sufficient for minimal examples (such as gcd, ack, matrix, etc.) and > one application (raytracing). Amazing! > The subset is so tiny because MinCaml was developed for an > undergraduate course, where I put most energy to the ease of > understanding and couldn't include many features. However, adding > them would be a nice project for more advanced students. Might I suggest an OCaml byte-code back end? Then you could "borrow" the OCaml GC. > By the way, for the majority of people who do not speak Japanese:-), I > am preparing an Enlish documentation. Marvellous, thank you. :-) -- Dr Jon D Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd. Objective CAML for Scientists http://www.ffconsultancy.com/products/ocaml_for_scientists