Re: [Caml-list] Constructors are not functions

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

"David Allsopp" <dra-news@metastack.com> writes:

> Jon Harrop wrote:
>> David Allsopp wrote:
>> > I think it would be possible to simulate the SML behaviour in OCaml
>> > using camlp4 (if you assume that for [type foo = Bar of int] that future
>> > unbound references to [bar] are interpreted as [fun x -> bar x] instead of an
>> > error)
>> 
>> Only if you turned multi-argument type constructors into single-
>> argument ones
>> taking a tuple, i.e. type definitions like:
>> 
>>   type t = Bar of int * int
>> 
>> must become:
>> 
>>   type t = Bar of (int * int)
>
> That's not the case at all - there'd be no reason not to interpret [bar] as [fun x y -> Bar(x, y)] for [Bar of int * int]. What would be hairy in camlp4 would be having to read .cmi files to deal with types defined outside your source file, but that's still not impossible...
>
>
> David 

Then what about

type t1 = Bar of int * int
type t2 = Foo of (int * int)

If you treat constructors as functions taking one argument then

t1: int * int -> t1
t2: int * int -> t2

But:

# let x = (1,2);;
val x : int * int = (1, 2)
# Foo(x);;
- : t2 = Foo (1, 2)
# Bar(x);;
Error: The constructor Bar expects 2 argument(s),
       but is here applied to 1 argument(s)

As functions "Bar" would have to deconstruct the tuple while "Foo"
uses it directly. And I would rather have curried constructors as in
"Bar 1 : int -> t1".


The difference between t1 and t2 gets lost. I actually hate that you
can write "Bar(1,2)" and "Foo(1,2)" Same problem there. It is unclear
if you pass 2 arguments or a tuple.

This should really be

t1: int -> int -> t1
t2: int * int -> t2

fun x y -> Bar x y
fun (x,y) -> Foo (x,y)

MfG
        Goswin