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[213.174.123.10]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id ff1sm15805852wbb.5.2011.12.16.12.06.44 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:06:44 -0800 (PST) Sender: Roberto Di Cosmo Received: from dicosmo by voyager with local (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1Rbe5w-0002HW-IJ; Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:09:28 +0100 Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:09:28 +0100 From: Roberto Di Cosmo To: Andrej Bauer Cc: Jon Harrop , caml-list@inria.fr Message-ID: <20111216200928.GA8711@voyager> References: <00d101ccbc28$09440c30$1bcc2490$@ffconsultancy.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Don't forget the user Js_of_OCaml is your friend, see http://ocsigen.org/js_of_ocaml/manual/ The online demo is not working for me (stuck in a terminal airport), but I have seen it several times working on Jerome's browser, and it's quite cool --Roberto http://ocsigen.org/js_of_ocaml/files/toplevel/index.html On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 08:56:37PM +0100, Andrej Bauer wrote: > That's a good idea, actually, because the barrier to entry is 0. I > could even run my own server. Wasn't there a javascript implementation > of the ocaml toplevel? It should be possible to upload/download files, > though. > > On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Jon Harrop wrote: > > Wouldn't it be preferable for students to use OCaml in a browser? I'm just teaching a bunch of people F# and I've recommended tryfsharp.org to them for that reason. Perhaps it would be better to build something comparable in the OCaml world, rather than starting down the arduous route of an easy-to-install optimizing native code compiler? > > > > Cheers, > > Jon. > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: Andrej Bauer [mailto:andrej.bauer@andrej.com] > >> Sent: 15 December 2011 07:30 > >> To: caml-list@inria.fr > >> Subject: [Caml-list] Don't forget the user > >> > >> Recent discussions on how to improve the Ocaml-on-windows situation are very > >> welcome, but I see a lot of tech-speak and little feeling for the users, who care > >> just about one thing: to have a click & install distribution of Ocaml that actually > >> works. > >> > >> Keep this in mind: 90% of potential Ocaml users are on Windows, and they never > >> heard of Mingw or Cygwin, and they never used a command prompt. > >> > >> It doesn't matter if the distribution is incomplete. It doesn't matter what is under > >> the hood. It doesn't matter what "the expert" thinks about it, much less so what > >> Linux people think about it (I am typing this on a Linux box). Someone just needs > >> to do it, and Jonathan Protzenko seems an obvious candidate. Jonathan, if you > >> have the time to modify your distribution so that it become self-contained, i.e., > >> it contains mingw + ocaml (does _not_ separately install mingw, it just sticks it > >> under ocaml and then ocaml uses that, independently of whether there already > >> is a mingw on the system), I am sure that will be received very positively by many > >> people, even though "the experts" > >> will spit on it, and will point out that this is not The Right Way, etc. Just do it. > >> > >> Once we have such a thing, it can be optimized to our hearts content: > >> strip down mingw, check if mingw is already there, add support for flexdll, etc. > >> > >> The said fact is that I would _love_ to teach Ocaml to my students, but I can't > >> because installing Ocaml is too hard. Just give me _anything_ that actually > >> works. Otherwise I will keep teaching "functional programming" with > >> Mathematica... > >> > >> That's my opinion. > >> > >> With kind regards, > >> > >> Andrej > >> > >> -- > >> Caml-list mailing list.  Subscription management and archives: > >> https://sympa-roc.inria.fr/wws/info/caml-list > >> Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners > >> Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs > > > > > -- > Caml-list mailing list. Subscription management and archives: > https://sympa-roc.inria.fr/wws/info/caml-list > Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners > Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs > -- --Roberto Di Cosmo ------------------------------------------------------------------ Professeur En delegation a l'INRIA PPS E-mail: roberto@dicosmo.org Universite Paris Diderot WWW : http://www.dicosmo.org Case 7014 Tel : ++33-(0)1-57 27 92 20 5, Rue Thomas Mann F-75205 Paris Cedex 13 Identica: http://identi.ca/rdicosmo FRANCE. 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