ANNOUNCE: pa_bitmatch 0.5

ANNOUNCE: pa_bitmatch 0.5

[Richard Jones]

I'm pleased to announce the (experimental) version 0.5 of pa_bitmatch,
the syntax extension that adds Erlang-style bit strings and bit string
matching to OCaml.

http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/bitmatch/

In this release:

 - The "bitmatch" operator has been rewritten to use patterns
   properly (before it was using a hack involving expressions).
   One consequence of this is that you can now use all the
   features of OCaml patterns, eg:

   bitmatch packet with
   | { ((4|6) as ip_version) : 4 } ->
     printf "I understand IPv4 or v6, this is version %d\n" ip_version

 - You can now match and construct using plain strings:

   bitmatch file with
   | { "MAGIC" : 40 : string } -> ...

 - Error messages are now localized all the way down to individual
   fields in the pattern, which makes it a lot easier to chase
   errors.

 - You need to put { ... } around all fields.  Sorry, this breaks
   the syntax, but (a) it makes it much easier to use the extension
   with common editors, and (b) it's a very simple mechanical change
   to existing code.  I'll try not to change the syntax again if
   I can avoid it.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat