From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from discorde.inria.fr (discorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.38]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB379BC6B for ; Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:20:20 +0200 (CEST) Received: from fiton.bononia.it (fiton.bononia.it [130.186.88.105]) by discorde.inria.fr (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id l7JHKI6M017839 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL) for ; Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:20:20 +0200 Received: from aquarium.takhisis.invalid (fiton.bononia.it [130.186.88.105]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "Stefano Zacchiroli", Issuer "sockmel.bononia.it" (verified OK)) by fiton.bononia.it (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD0A638839 for ; Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:19:55 +0200 (CEST) Received: by aquarium.takhisis.invalid (Postfix, from userid 1000) id E87DF1248AC; Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:19:53 +0200 (CEST) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:19:53 +0200 From: Stefano Zacchiroli To: Inria Ocaml Mailing List Subject: Re: [Caml-list] If OCaml were a car Message-ID: <20070819171953.GB20931@takhisis.invalid> Mail-Followup-To: Inria Ocaml Mailing List References: <56864F61-40F3-4F03-9823-6D510AD5320B@epfl.ch> <200708191443.l7JEhEQ8007374@psi-phi.mit.edu> <20070819170704.GA10089@furbychan.cocan.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20070819170704.GA10089@furbychan.cocan.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.16 (2007-06-11) X-Miltered: at discorde with ID 46C87BD2.004 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail . ensmp . fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; zacchiroli:01 zack:01 ocaml:01 0100,:01 syntax:01 syntax:01 ocaml:01 sub-optimal:01 cheers:01 zacchiroli:01 zack:01 unibo:01 wrote:01 caml-list:01 revised:02 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 (15:57:15) Bac: no, la demo scema \/ right keys at the right time