Re: [Caml-list] Compilation semantics for static garbage collection

[Malcolm Matalka <mmatalka@gmail.com>]

Kenneth Adam Miller <kennethadammiller@gmail.com> writes:

> I was thinking that while rust is new, some of what it is pioneering is
> really interesting, especially with the way it deals with ownership being a
> type. Rust doesn't have a GC, yet it rules out leakage and remains fast. It
> also manages concurrency safety very well.
>
> The stipulations put on types in the ocaml language are pretty strict, and
> the GC is transparent to the user. What is the possibility that there could
> ever be a version of ocaml that makes use of something like ownership or
> some typing mechanism to determine more at compile time, to facilitate the
> removal or reduction of the GC?

From my understanding, Rust is just doing linear typing.  There is an ML
variant called LinearML from Anil that implements this, but it's a toy.
This could be added to Ocaml, but I think it's really unclear how it
would interact with the rest of the language.