Re: [Caml-list] Caml toplevel and readline

[John Max Skaller <skaller@ozemail.com.au>]

Jacques Garrigue wrote:
> 
> From: John Max Skaller <skaller@ozemail.com.au>
> 
> > I find the ocaml top level 'ocaml' very clumbsy to use,
> > compared with, say, Python's top level, because it
> > doesn't understand line editing. Any chance of optionally
> > building it with gnu_readline?
> 
> No. Gnu-readline is a well-known example of library released under the
> GPL, which makes it incompatible with the caml toplevel, which is
> covered by the QPL :-)

	So much for 'free software'. :-(
 
	But how come Python uses it?
Python is (effectively) public domain!

> But there are plenty of external alternatives: using emacs, 

	I don't... I know it's probably better than vim,
but not enough to bother switching.

> using ocamlbrowser's shell, 

	.. messy .. it does weird things, like most X windows
software :-( I hit up arrow, the cursor moves up. Why?
I cut and paste a line, I get 'bad character' errors.

>using ledit.
> ledit is a tool written in camlp4 by Daniel de Raglaudre
> which allows line editing on any program.
>   http://cristal.inria.fr/~ddr/index-english.html

	I've tried that and couldn't get it to work.
That goes for about half the C/Ocaml packages I've tried,
including, of all things, CamlImages. 

> Linking the editing code of ledit with the toplevel might also be an
> option.

	Only if it is done in the standard distribution,
or in CDK (I'm using the CDK distribution). I don't want to 
patch around, and then have my fiddling undone by the
next distribution I build.

-- 
John (Max) Skaller, mailto:skaller@maxtal.com.au
10/1 Toxteth Rd Glebe NSW 2037 Australia voice: 61-2-9660-0850
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