Re: [Caml-list] teaching OCaml

[Kenichi Asai <asai@is.ocha.ac.jp>]

Hi Bob,

I have been using OCaml as a teaching language for quite a while.

> 1. Error messages: It's difficult to give good type errors for ML but I was
> hoping that the state-of-the-art of type error reporting had improved. When my
> students receive a type error, they are utterly mystified,

Not directly addressing the error messages, but this spring, I used
our type debugger for OCaml in the introductory course.  By answering
questions, it leads you to the source of the type error, with better
error messages.  With proper instruction, I found that students
actually learn how OCaml types work from the interaction with the type
debugger.  It also introduces a few language levels which are good for
novices.

http://pllab.is.ocha.ac.jp/~asai/TypeDebugger/

(English error messages are not polished compared to Japanese error
messages.  Your feedback welcome.)

> 2. GUIs: several of my problem sets work with simple graphics (e.g., rendering
> tessellations) or animations (e.g., a maze walk or a simplified form of
> tetris, or the game "Flow"). We have been hobbling along with the Graphics and
> Labltk modules for this but it has been more pain than my students ought to
> know. We also have some problem sets that work with audio so I would like
> support for that.

One of my students is porting the universe teachpack of Racket into
OCaml, which enables easy game programming similarly to Racket.
I am now encouraging her to make the library public...

Sincerely,

-- 
Kenichi Asai