[Caml-list] Module and structure ...

[Christophe Raffalli <Christophe.Raffalli@univ-savoie.fr>]

I am using module in a very extensive way in a program ... and I do not see
anything you can do
with structure taht you can not do with structure.

The only problems are syntactic (and I hope they will be fixed soon):

M(A).fied has to be written 
let module X = M(A) in X.field

functor (x:type) -> struct . . . end has to be written
functor (X:sig x:type end) -> struct open X... end (with extra modifications to
call the functor)

But then you can "open" a structure, share labels, use subtyping, and so on ...

Actually the "open M in" feature is missing but can be simulated by creating a
module:

open M in P := let module Result = struct open M let result = P end in
Result.result

So why not adding this open M in feature and the two others above has they are
only (almost) syntactic sugar ?

---

And then, why not replace structures by modules ? It would simplify the
compiler ?

would it be less efficient ? If yes, isn't it just a matter of optimisation ?

---

And then the next step is to merge module and object ... It may no be so
difficult but this looks
like research topic ...
 
-- 
Christophe Raffalli
Université de Savoie
Batiment Le Chablais, bureau 21
73376 Le Bourget-du-Lac Cedex

tél: (33) 4 79 75 81 03
fax: (33) 4 79 75 87 42
mail: Christophe.Raffalli@univ-savoie.fr
www: http://www.lama.univ-savoie.fr/~RAFFALLI
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