From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from mail1-relais-roc.national.inria.fr (mail1-relais-roc.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.82]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 45D35BBC1 for ; Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:41:52 +0100 (CET) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AnEEAJdp2Ec+BBFnWmdsb2JhbACBWI8RARQEBQgIlGY X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.25,492,1199660400"; d="scan'208";a="9369467" Received: from smtp-103-wednesday.noc.nerim.net (HELO mallaury.nerim.net) ([62.4.17.103]) by mail1-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr with ESMTP; 13 Mar 2008 07:41:52 +0100 Received: from hector.lesours (ours.starynkevitch.net [213.41.244.95]) by mallaury.nerim.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id A76704FC74; Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:41:47 +0100 (CET) Received: from [192.168.0.1] (glinka.lesours [192.168.0.1]) by hector.lesours (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BF0320F0D1; Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:40:55 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <47D8CCA1.9020502@starynkevitch.net> Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:41:37 +0100 From: Basile STARYNKEVITCH User-Agent: Mozilla-Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (X11/20080109) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Fabrice Marchant Cc: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] A C to OCaml helper ? References: <20080312204217.3f5087e3@orange.fr> <47D84537.2060100@starynkevitch.net> <20080312220938.236ba3d5@orange.fr> In-Reply-To: <20080312220938.236ba3d5@orange.fr> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam: no; 0.00; basile:01 basile:01 ocaml:01 ocaml:01 translated:01 rewriting:01 pointer:01 callbacks:01 gtk:01 refactor:01 faiencerie:01 92340:01 reine:01 wrote:01 wrote:01 Fabrice Marchant wrote: > On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:03:51 +0100 > Basile STARYNKEVITCH wrote: > >> Fabrice Marchant wrote: >>> Please does it exist some tool that could do at least the very mechanical first parts of the translation of a C source to OCaml ? >> Why do you want to do that? > > Why do I want a tool to do the _very mechanical parts_ of the job ? > A simple example : > because I would be happy to get the comment brackets automatically translated ( and the C++ like C extension // too.) > There are several such very automatic things like if( ) -> if then. > >> You could call most of your C routines from Ocaml. > Yes, but in the present case, I'm interesting in a full rewriting. This is precisely because I imagine to be able to rewrite the C ( game ) program a very different and terse way, that I undertake this task. > >> And most importantly, the main interest of ocaml is the way of thinking >> it. > Absolutely : that's the reason why I play to rewrite the C program an OCaml way. Then you have to rewrite it manually, because you have to re design your program differently (in a functional way). In particular, functional values are very common in Ocaml, and do not exist as such in C (a C pointer function is *not* a closure, you have to bring it some data); and combining both is done manually: callbacks, signal & slots [like in QT or GTK], etc... Also, in Ocaml you frequently have tiny functions : just look at how easily you can sort an array of records of person's first & last names in Ocaml (it really fits in one or two lines), and how it become harder in C. > However, I remember you are the man who oriented me to OCaml and I'm > very grateful of this, because OCaml programming is a real pleasure So you learnt that Ocaml programming paradigms are different from those in C. I'm really not convinced that any automatic tool could bring you something valuable. Because tools do not help to re design (not only refactor or translate) programs. And my advice is even to avoid doing any immediate translation by hand. Do not look often at your C code, but redesign your game (and your former experience in C game coding would help you). Perhaps this could be done incrementally, by keeping some routines in C (and calling them from Ocaml). -- Basile STARYNKEVITCH http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/ email: basilestarynkevitchnet mobile: +33 6 8501 2359 8, rue de la Faiencerie, 92340 Bourg La Reine, France *** opinions {are only mines, sont seulement les miennes} ***