Re: [Caml-list] Distributed computing libraries

[Thomas Braibant <thomas.braibant@gmail.com>]

> Don't hesitate, jump on it, that's really a nice technology.
> The "minimal disruption" concept is quite interesting.
> For example, if your List.iter is changed to a Parmap.pariter,
> the parallelization of this portion of the code is done.
>
> It's quite comfortable to develop and debug in single core mode (List.iter)
> and switch to the // version only once you're happy with
> the sequential one.

I see. However, looking at, e.g., Functory,
http://www.lri.fr/~filliatr/functory/doc/Functory.Cores.html it seems
that I can use it in the same fashion (Using Functory.Cores.map
instead of List.map) and that I can debug my code using
Functory.Sequential.map.

So this does not really discriminate between the two libraries. Note,
however, that I cannot find Parmap's API described on line (using
ocamldoc). Right now, it seems that I have to download it, to generate
the doc.

Note that Gerd's Plasma Map/Reduce has a nice and comprehensive
documentation available, but, being more ambitious maybe, it is harder
for a beginner to find his/her way in: the entry cost is higher.

By comparison, JOcaml's manual is written in a quasi-tutorial fashion
( http://jocaml.inria.fr/doc/index.html ) which makes it more easy to
start hacking stuff, even if the scope is a bit different.

And what about CamlP3l? What is its status? Is it superseded by Parmap
(the lists of authors of the two softwares have a non-empty
intersection)?

Maybe that I should add some criteria to Oliver's list:
- active / inactive
- used in the wild
- documentation (API, manual)
- examples / tutorials

With best regards,
Thomas