Julien, Thanks for your suggestion. I realize that I can paper over the problem in various ways, but I was hoping for a more type-theoretic approach to solving the problem of needing an implementation-specific but otherwise abstract type parameter in printf's signature. If I could declare 'b as a function of the particular implementation in question, that might solve it, but I'm not sure how to express this.

Warren


Julien Moutinho - julien.moutinho@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, Sep 23, 2007 at 07:11:21PM -0700, Warren Harris wrote:
  
I have a simple output stream class that abstracts over out_channels and 
buffers. I would like to add a printf method that takes a format directive, 
and calls the appropriate Printf function.
[...]
This type parameter propagates through numerous places in my code,
in some cases requiring other methods to become polymorphic.
    

Consider using the class below instead of out_stream directly:

class my'out_stream och buf =
  object
    val buffer = new out_stream_of_buffer buf
    method buffer = buffer
    val outchan = new out_stream_of_channel och
    method outchan = outchan
  end

Or this one, depending on how you get your buf and och:

class my'out_stream'opt
  ?och ?buf () =
  object (self)
    val mutable buffer = None
    method init_buffer buf =
        buffer <- Some (new out_stream_of_buffer buf)
    initializer
        match buf with None -> ()
        | Some buf -> self#init_buffer buf
    method buffer =
        match buffer with
        | Some o -> o
        | None -> failwith "MyStream.my'out_stream'opt#buf: no buffer provided"
    
    val mutable outchan = None
    method init_outchan och =
        outchan <- Some (new out_stream_of_channel och)
    initializer
        match och with None -> ()
        | Some och -> self#init_outchan och
    method outchan =
        match outchan with
        | Some o -> o
        | None -> failwith "MyStream.my'out_stream'opt#och: no channel provided"
  end

HTH,
  Julien.

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