From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id PAA12121; Mon, 2 Jun 2003 15:32:12 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id PAA12152 for ; Mon, 2 Jun 2003 15:32:11 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from teutates.kfunigraz.ac.at (TEUTATES.kfunigraz.ac.at [143.50.129.26]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id h52DWAH21069 for ; Mon, 2 Jun 2003 15:32:10 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by teutates.kfunigraz.ac.at (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1FAE03D222D for ; Mon, 2 Jun 2003 15:32:04 +0200 (CEST) Received: from teutates.kfunigraz.ac.at ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (teutates.kfunigraz.ac.at [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 00583-05 for ; Mon, 2 Jun 2003 15:31:59 +0200 (CEST) Received: from stud.uni-graz.at (IGAM08AV.kfunigraz.ac.at [143.50.39.35]) by teutates.kfunigraz.ac.at (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9CFED3D2230 for ; Mon, 2 Jun 2003 15:31:52 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <3EDB40DE.9020002@stud.uni-graz.at> Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 14:19:42 +0200 From: Siegfried Gonzi Organization: Universitaet Graz User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:0.9.8) Gecko/20020204 X-Accept-Language: en-us MIME-Version: 1.0 Cc: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: [Caml-list] Am I mad?: OCaml for scientific scripting References: <1054553849.31726.7.camel@localhost.localdomain> <3EDB3EFA.7000606@wanadoo.nl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at stud.uni-graz.at X-Spam: no; 0.00; siegfried:01 gonzi:01 stud:99 bigloo:01 python:01 stupid:01 cern:01 devil:01 haskell:01 ocaml:01 command:98 interfaces:01 mainstream:01 fortran:03 complain:03 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk How many of you guys are using OCaml for scripting? I mean I am faced now with the following problem: I have a Fortran program which relies more or less on input files and produces output files. This is good news because there is no need to write foreign function interfaces; all what is needed is to use a system command in order to start the program. This sounds easy, but my brain is screaming whether I should really use OCaml for the task: scripting. It is by no means a killer application but I am playing with the thought to make it available to a specialized community, eventually. So, it is science and I can use my tools what I think are best for the job, but believe it or not I am unsure: a) Bigloo b) Python c) OCaml [d) Clean but someone should immediately shot me for this stupid idea: Clean is dead, dead, dead, dead, dead and you will not get any help] I wouldn't hesitate to use Python. I wouldn't hesitate to use Bigloo (Scheme), but I am really not that sure whether it would be fair to use Ocaml for that task. Why? May I really expect from a colleague that he settles on OCaml? Okay, nobody will ever ask whether they are ready to settle on C++ and you may not forget: C++ is a huge language. All the newer projects in science are more or less exclusively done in C++ (see for example ROOT in Cern). But is it legal to say he should also become interested in OCaml if he wants to use my software? I estimate the learning curve for Ocaml as big as C++. I am now a bit irritated about myself, because I have always thought the C++, Java,...imperative, and devil knows bigots are ignorant and we know the stories from the managers who do not recognise the good software practise: functional programming (which in reality cannot show its cutting edge, because there is no such a thing). I am not into mainstream and do not have problems to use my tools. For example I use Linux and do not even have access at my working place at the university to Windows. But why is it that hard for me to use Ocaml? Look I had the chance to. Others complain all day long that they are forced to use C++ and would feel like in heaven if they could use OCaml/Haskell/.... S. Gonzi > > > ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners