Re: [Caml-list] If OCaml were a car

[Stefano Zacchiroli <zack@bononia.it>]

On Sun, Aug 19, 2007 at 06:07:16PM +0100, Richard Jones wrote:
> It's not likely that the syntax can be changed (how is the revised
> syntax doing lately?) but there is one error message which could be

Well, yes, the syntax can be changed and it isn't hard either.

It's just a matter of stating something like «from version x.y the
official syntax is the revised one, you can use the provided converter
for migrating your old code to the new syntax». Other languages have
seen similar migrations in the past and they survived.

Point is that upstream OCaml authors have never acknowledged that the
current syntax is more than sub-optimal and the fear of missing backward
compatibility has done the rest.

The revised syntax is far better, but there has never been the
willingness to push it.

Cheers.

-- 
Stefano Zacchiroli -*- PhD in Computer Science ............... now what?
zack@{cs.unibo.it,debian.org,bononia.it} -%- http://www.bononia.it/zack/
(15:56:48)  Zack: e la demo dema ?    /\    All one has to do is hit the
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