Re: [Caml-list] Compiler killer code?

[Blair Zajac <blair@orcaware.com>]

Xavier Leroy wrote:
> 
> >          Objective Caml version 3.04+13 (2002-06-05)
> >
> > # type t = t -> t ;;
> > type t = t -> t
> > # let rec f (x:t) = f f ;;
> > Interrupted.
> 
> This looks like a bug in the development version.  Without the
> -rectypes flag, the declaration of t should be rejected, like it is in
> OCaml 3.04.  Interestingly, the development version handles your
> example just fine when -rectypes is set.
> 
> A note to users of the development version: we appreciate your
> testing, but please keep the latest official release around to check
> weird behaviors, and when you observe a discrepancy like the above,
> report it to caml-bugs@inria.fr.

I think this points to something that should be considered for
future Ocaml development, that being a comprehensive test suite
to check the language.  This would also help test porting of the
language to new OSes.

All of the major compilers I can think of, Perl, Python, GCC, etc,
have a test suite and I think from a company's point of view looking
to use the language, a test suite written in Caml would give additional
credibility and a sense of professionalism that would only help
adoption rates.

A good model for the test suite would be Perl's test suite which checks
every aspect of the language and its modules and is written in Perl
itself.

Is there any interest in this?

Best,
Blair

-- 
Blair Zajac <blair@orcaware.com>
Web and OS performance plots - http://www.orcaware.com/orca/
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