From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id XAA11024; Thu, 23 Aug 2001 23:12:50 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id XAA10769 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2001 23:12:50 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from shell5.ba.best.com (shell5.ba.best.com [206.184.139.136]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.10.0) with ESMTP id f7NLCmH06445 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2001 23:12:49 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from localhost (bpr@localhost) by shell5.ba.best.com (8.9.3/8.9.2/best.sh) with ESMTP id OAA06063; Thu, 23 Aug 2001 14:12:46 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 14:12:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Rogoff To: Gerd Stolpmann cc: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] standard regex package In-Reply-To: <01082322261504.02716@ice> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Gerd Stolpmann wrote: > On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Brian Rogoff wrote: > >The other stuff can come later. I think Markus has a very good point about > >some distutils (Python) like facility being even more important. Once such > >a framework is in place we can have an OCaml CPAN. Last time I looked findlib > >ran only on Unix, which is a big problem. > > When I developed findlib I had something like CPAN in mind. I started it when I > downloaded several 3rd party packages, and all had a different installation > routines I had to modify for my purposes. For those who don't know: You can > install almost every 3rd party Perl package by simply doing > > perl Makefile.pl > make > make test > make install > > It is simple to do, and that's an important aspect of the success of Perl (a > language which is nothing without CPAN). Right, and our advantage is that the language is something without CCAN (COAN? KOAN? :) but will be much more with it. > I hope we will have CCAN. Of course, one precondition is a standard package > structure, and I can imagine the findlib tool could be an important part of it > (for a description see > http://test.ocaml-programming.de/packages/documentation/findlib/). > > Currently, findlib runs only on Unix (including cygwin), but this is mainly > because I have no native Windows installation on which I could test it. Maybe the Consortium should just get you a few Windows machines? I'm totally serious about that; once this hole is filled we can seriously talk about world domination. Err, benevolent world domination, of course. > Especially, I have removed all shell scripts (it is now purely programmed in > OCaml), and it is only a question of fixing details. (And of writing a > replacement for "configure".) > [...snip...] > >A better apporach might be to ape Python and the SML Basis Library by providing a > >generic "OS" module which abstracts at least Unix/Win/Mac away. I would > >prefer this, since I feel silly using Unix. on a Windows box :-). > > "Unix" is only a name for an API (and not for a technology or a familiy of OSs), Really that API is "Posix", right? Yeah, I know, a small matter of spelling. > and it is clearly MS's fault not to be Unix-compliant (other operating systems > originating in different worlds are, e.g. MVS includes a Unix API). But that's > politics... (MS had some times ago a Posix mode in NT but nobody used it, so I > think there are no real technical reasons.) My memory is that NT's Posix mode was not truely Posix compliant, but it's been a while and I could be wrong. > Being more abstract has also disadvantages because you don't know which system > calls are done for one abstract call. I was thinking of "OS" as providing a high level view of a fairly generic OS with a hierarchical file system. I agree that a Posix module with Posix semantics is also required, as is a WindowsNT/2000/XP or whatever they decide to call it. Or to sound hip, a thick binding to generic OS features and numerous thin bindings which are mostly just stubs for the system calls. -- Brian ------------------- Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr