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 UAA14944; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 20:23:22 +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 UAA14928 for ; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 20:23:21 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from staff.gtmd.com (adsl-63-195-80-23.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [63.195.80.23]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.10.0) with ESMTP id f56INJL23734 for ; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 20:23:20 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from aria.chasm.org (aria [192.168.0.3]) by staff.gtmd.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA49808 for ; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 11:21:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from charles@chasm.org) Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20010606105508.03bcd550@chasm.org> X-Sender: charles@chasm.org X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 11:25:43 -0700 To: caml-list@inria.fr From: Charles Martin Subject: Re: [Caml-list] ocaml complexity In-Reply-To: <20010606095041.A93623@caddr.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk >I feel that these other languages were much easier to learn. There is a well established pedagogy for Lisp, Scheme, and ML which does not exist for OCaml. The resources that are available are a bit more difficult for the novice to find and to use; for example, the tutorial for Caml (not OCaml), which the novice might pass by thinking it's not relevant, or books that are in French (only) or only available on order from Amazon for over $100. I think a slight reorganization of the manual could help. Right now, new users first see a tidy introduction to the "core language," and are then immediately thrown into a discussion of labels, "commuting labels mode", and polymorphic variants. The novice wonders: Is this important? Can I ignore it? Who knows? Let's skip ahead: the next section of the manual covers objects, parameterized classes, coercions, etc. More confusion. Once up to speed on OCaml and a regular reader of caml-list, the novice will realize that objects, labels, and polymorphic variants are not in wide use. Indeed, they weren't included in the "core language" discussion. But modules appear to be more central to how OCaml is actually used. Perhaps the manual could be restructured to make this clear: PART I - Introduction to OCaml The core language The module system PART II - Advanced Topics Objects in Caml Advanced examples with classes and modules Labels and variants ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr. Archives: http://caml.inria.fr