ocamlbuild documentation (was Re: [Caml-list] Re: [ANN] OCaml Batteries Included, alpha 3)

["Daniel Bünzli" <daniel.buenzli@erratique.ch>]

Le 9 févr. 09 à 10:32, Romain Bardou a écrit :

> It would really help to improve the documentation if you could  
> explain what were the problems you encountered and where did you  
> look for the documentation.

Simple projects are not the problem. The plugin interface lacks  
documentation.

> Please note that since the first OCaml meeting (last year), the wiki  
> has changed quite a bit, so if you tried Ocamlbuild before, you  
> might want to try it again.

Wikis are nice but not are no substitute for real documentation. The  
designers of ocamlbuild should once take the time to thoroughly  
explain and document the philosophy and workings of ocamlbuild; how  
does it work, what is the right way to do thing, what is the wrong way  
to do things, how do I achieve this etc.

So far every program of the caml toolchain had sufficiently clear  
documentation in ocaml's manual. With respect to that ocamlbuild is an  
unwelcomed precedent.

It's sad because this seems to hinder the adoption of this very  
powerful tool that IMHO drifts away from make nightmares in the right  
way. For example being able to do this kind of tricks [1] without any  
hassle is just a blessing for your modularity and productivity.

Best,

Daniel

[1] http://brion.inria.fr/gallium/index.php/Working_on_dependent_projects_with_ocamlbuild