RE: Undefined labels

[Brian Rogoff <bpr@best.com>]

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On Fri, 12 Nov 1999, Manuel Fahndrich wrote:
>
> This is the standard example for why we need a local open in the language.
>
> -Manuel

Let me second that motion. Coming from Ada, I always wondered why OCaml
doesn't allow you to restrict the scope of open, instead of putting it
always at module level.

-- Brian

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christian RINDERKNECHT [mailto:rinderkn@hugo.int-evry.fr]
> Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 8:48 AM
> To: caml-redistribution@pauillac.inria.fr
> Cc: caml-list@inria.fr
> Subject: Re: Undefined labels
>
>
> Hello,
>
> > 	(Unix.fstat argument).st_kind
> >
> > Here, the function returns a structure, st_kind
> > is a label of that structure, but it is not known
> > in the calling module. Is there a syntax for this?
>
> Yes:
>
>         (Unix.fstat argument).Unix.st_kind
>                               ^^^^
> because the compiler doesn't know in what module to look-up for label
> [st_kind].
>
>
> > Using 'open Unix' is unacceptable.
>
> I also never use the "open" feature, but the consequence is, when using
> nested records, I must qualify all the labels (as in your example),
> and the code becomes unreadable.
>
> I recently started using classes in order to avoid this practical
> problem, since methods are in the scope of their object, not of the
> module embedding their class.
>
> But this doesn't work if the library you are using is not
> object-oriented, of course:)
>
> Best regards,
>
> --
>
> Christian
>
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