Re: Objective Caml 2.99 released

Re: Objective Caml 2.99 released

[Damien Doligez]

>From: skaller <skaller@maxtal.com.au>

>        Question: I see no mention of support for ocaml coded
>finalisers. This is a feature that I heard might be supported,
>and would be very useful to me, implementing python __del__ methods
>in my ocaml based python interpreter, Viperi.
>Can someone tell me the status of this issue? 

I know how to do it, it's just a matter of writing the code and the
doc.  I certainly hope it will make it into version 3.0.


>[Should I wait, or cobble up my own solution?]

I'll send you a patch as soon as I have something that works, so
you'll have the feature sooner and I'll have some help in finding the
bugs...

-- Damien

Re: Objective Caml 2.99 released

[skaller]

Damien Doligez wrote:

> >        Question: I see no mention of support for ocaml coded
> >finalisers. 

> I know how to do it, it's just a matter of writing the code and the
> doc.  I certainly hope it will make it into version 3.0.
> 
> >[Should I wait, or cobble up my own solution?]
> 
> I'll send you a patch as soon as I have something that works, so
> you'll have the feature sooner and I'll have some help in finding the
> bugs...

I can only thank you in advance most profusely, and wish I could
speak enough French to say it more expressively than in English
[picture of beaming face :-]. Thanks!!

[BTW: I'm not sure I like the idea of finalisers .. but here
I have a requirement which would appear to be best implemented
using them...]

-- 
John Skaller, mailto:skaller@maxtal.com.au
10/1 Toxteth Rd Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
homepage: http://www.maxtal.com.au/~skaller
voice: 61-2-9660-0850

Re: Objective Caml 2.99 released

[skaller]

Jacques Garrigue wrote:
> 
> We are happy to announce
> 
>          Objective Caml version 2.99 (The Merger)

	WOW! i didn't expect this for ages!
Allow me to congratulate the team on this excellent and speedy work!
I'm impressed!! [2.02-3-4-99 in a few weeks!]

	Question: I see no mention of support for ocaml coded
finalisers. This is a feature that I heard might be supported,
and would be very useful to me, implementing python __del__ methods
in my ocaml based python interpreter, Viperi.
Can someone tell me the status of this issue? 
[Should I wait, or cobble up my own solution?]

-- 
John Skaller, mailto:skaller@maxtal.com.au
10/1 Toxteth Rd Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
homepage: http://www.maxtal.com.au/~skaller
voice: 61-2-9660-0850

Objective Caml 2.99 released

[Jacques Garrigue]

We are happy to announce

         Objective Caml version 2.99 (The Merger)

This release is the result of merging Objective Label features inside
Objective Caml. It contains very few bug fixes and many new
features. As the version number suggests, this is a beta release.
This does not mean that we are aware of any bug, but if you are
satisfied with 2.04 you may prefer to wait for 3.00.

New features:

  * labeled arguments
    They help you document your code.
    You may choose to use the compatible syntax (by default), which
    allows labels but require them to be present in applications, or
    the stricter olabl-like syntax.

  * optional arguments
    They are available in both modes, and allow to define multiple
    call patterns for functions.

  * polymorphic variants
    They allow the reuse of the same variant tag in multiple
    contexts/types and provide a refined type checking.


New tools and libraries:

  * ocaml2to3: a script converting ocaml 2 files to the new lexing rules.
    This only means adding spaces around colons, and converting
    question marks `?' to double ones `??'.

  * ocamlbrowser: an "integrated programming environment". This contains
    a library browser, a type-checking editor, and an Objective Caml shell.

  * labltk: another version of the ocamltk Tcl/Tk interface. It allows
    for a more natural syntax, using optional arguments.

OCamlBrowser and LablTk are not available on windows and Mac for this
release.


This merger does not mean that Objective Caml became Objective Label.
Only part of Objective Label features were included in this release.
Others, like polymorphic methods, may follow later, but nothing is
fixed yet.

Sources, documentation and binaries for Linux/RedHat and Windows are
available from:

        http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/distrib299.html
        ftp://ftp.inria.fr/lang/caml-light/

For general info on Objective Caml, see http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/

Please direct queries to caml-light@inria.fr, bug reports to
caml-bugs@caml.inria.fr, and general discussions to the mailing-list
caml-list@inria.fr or the comp.lang.ml newsgroup.

- Jacques Garrigue et Xavier Leroy, for the Objective Caml team.

Appendix:
---------
List of changes for Objective Label users

  * polymorphic methods and covariant subtyping of constructors are
    not available.

  * you must use the "-modern -w s" flags to have the compiler and
    toplevel behave more like Objective Label.

  * syntax of optional arguments with default value changed. One writes
    ?(:arg = default) or ?(arg:x = default) in place of
    ?:arg [< default >] or ?arg:x [< default >]
    Also you can now write (:arg : typ) to annotate a labeled argument
    with a type expression.

  * semantics of optional arguments changed. They are only discarded
    when a non-labeled argument appearing after them in the function type
    is applied. This means that any function have to rewritten to
    have a non-labeled argument in last position.

  * LablTk changed quite a bit. Outside of the above optional
    arguments problem, some other functions were homogeneized.