RE: [Caml-list] ocaml dll in an Erlang runtime

["Ulf Wiger (TN/EAB)" <ulf.wiger@ericsson.com>]

I hadn't made up my mind, but now I've created 
a google code project:

http://code.google.com/p/erlocaml/

and a google discussion group

http://groups.google.com/group/erlocaml-discuss


Let me know if you want to be added as member in
the group or project.

I have no particular structure in mind, but figure
that anyone competent enough to slap together 
useful code for this project can be trusted to 
submit it in a reasonable way. (:

Every google code project has a wiki. We could make
use of that as well. Again, I have no particular 
structure in mind.

BR,
Ulf W

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Henrikson [mailto:jehenrik@yahoo.com] 
> Sent: den 27 juni 2007 21:40
> To: Ulf Wiger (TN/EAB)
> Subject: Re: [Caml-list] ocaml dll in an Erlang runtime
> 
> I have been thinking about such a bridge and what it would be 
> good for. 
> I thought of something.  So I'd be interested in following 
> this conversation once it leaves caml-list.  Not sure if you 
> had in mind a mailing list or sourceforge page or whatever.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Jeff Henrikson
> 
> 
> On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:39:54 +0200, "Ulf Wiger (TN/EAB)"
> <ulf.wiger@ericsson.com> said:
> > 
> > Would any of you be interested in prototyping a semi-tight coupling 
> > between Erlang and OCaml?
> > 
> > A small group of Erlang programmers have started tossing the idea 
> > around, and with sufficient lack of detailed knowledge, it seems 
> > pretty reasonable. (:
> > 
> > 
> > Motivation:
> > 
> > We've been using Erlang in commercial products for over 10 
> years now, 
> > and it's taken about that long to get into a position where we're 
> > considered a viable player for mission-critical product 
> development. 
> > In order to get there, we've also been extolling the virtues of 
> > functional programming in general, and often cited Ocaml as 
> an example 
> > of how you don't have to sacrifice low-level performance.
> > 
> > We feel that the ongoing paradigm shift towards multicore 
> > architectures is really helping our cause. There is much discussion 
> > about how to get all those legacy apps to work and scale on new 
> > hardware, and the advantages of functional/declarative 
> programming are 
> > becoming more obvious.
> > 
> > Erlang is very strong in the area of concurrency, distribution and 
> > fault-tolerance, but fairly weak when sequential 
> performance is of the 
> > essence (especially number crunching). When Erlang 
> performance isn't 
> > enough, we usually jump into C-routines linked into the Erlang 
> > runtime, with all the problems associated with that. Often, 
> instead of 
> > risking system integrity, we live with the performance we 
> can get out of Erlang.
> > It would be nice if we could present Ocaml as a safe (and 
> productive!) 
> > driver environment for things like parsing text-based protocols, 
> > numerically intensive tasks, and complex sequential algorithms.
> > 
> > I've noticed that there have been some discussions about 
> concurrency 
> > in Ocaml. From an Ocaml perspective, this binding could be a way to 
> > use Ocaml in distributed systems, where Erlang is used as a 
> "systems glue"
> > for supervision, load balancing, replication, etc.
> > 
> > Idea:
> > 
> > I'd like to explore the idea of running an Ocaml runtime in 
> Erlang's 
> > memory space. Both languages are garbage-collected, and Erlang's 
> > linked-in driver interface allows for "drivers" that use their own 
> > threads. We could target only the multi-processor variant 
> of Erlang, 
> > where this sort of cooperation becomes slightly easier.
> > 
> > For a looser connection, Erlang's distribution protocol is 
> documented, 
> > and allows for "C-nodes" (non-Erlang nodes) to connect to an Erlang 
> > cluster over TCP. One could actually start with talking via regular 
> > pipes, using a common serialization format, and then 
> gradually making 
> > a tighter and tigher connection.
> > 
> > 
> > I will make no false promises, like "if we do this, 
> Ericsson will use 
> > it". I have no money to offer anyone, and we who have 
> started looking 
> > at this on the erlang side have fairly little time to spend on it. 
> > Business as usual, in other words: no time, no money - just an idea 
> > that might be fun to explore.
> > 
> > What say ye? Do you think it's doable? Would any of you be 
> willing to 
> > assist, or offer advice?
> > 
> > 
> > The Erlang docs have an Interoperability Tutorial:
> > http://www.erlang.org/doc/tutorial/part_frame.html
> > 
> > The Erlang Term serialization format, the Erlang Port Mapper Daemon 
> > protocol, and the Distributed Erlang protocol are documented in a 
> > slightly more obscure location. Download the source from 
> > http://www.erlang.org/download.html and read the text file 
> > otp_src_R11B-5/erts/emulator/internal_doc/erl_ext_dist.txt
> > 
> > If you feel that this is OT for the caml list, you can backmail me.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Ulf Wiger
> > Senior software architect
> > Ericsson
> --
>   Jeff Henrikson
>   jehenrik@jhenrikson.org
> 
>