From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id A130FBB81 for ; Thu, 29 Sep 2005 06:02:05 +0200 (CEST) Received: from pauillac.inria.fr (pauillac.inria.fr [128.93.11.35]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id j8T424Pp018074 for ; Thu, 29 Sep 2005 06:02:05 +0200 Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id GAA28950 for ; Thu, 29 Sep 2005 06:02:04 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mail26.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail26.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.28]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id j8T421Mx021898 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Thu, 29 Sep 2005 06:02:03 +0200 Received: (qmail 23459 invoked from network); 29 Sep 2005 04:02:00 -0000 Received: from shell4.sea5.speakeasy.net ([69.17.116.5]) (envelope-sender ) by mail26.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP for ; 29 Sep 2005 04:02:00 -0000 Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 21:02:00 -0700 (PDT) From: brogoff To: skaller Cc: caml-list , David MENTRE Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Looking for a configuration file library In-Reply-To: <1127964804.20162.36.camel@rosella> Message-ID: References: <3d13dcfc05092706091acdb72a@mail.gmail.com> <3d13dcfc050928000613f42ed@mail.gmail.com> <1127925464.7743.71.camel@rosella> <1127964804.20162.36.camel@rosella> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 433B673C.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Miltered: at nez-perce with ID 433B673A.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 noweb:01 noweb:01 nonstandard:01 config:01 config:01 admittedly:01 subjective:01 ocaml:01 hash:01 ocaml:01 compiler:01 2005,:98 ...:98 ...:98 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.3 (2005-04-27) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.0.3 On Thu, 29 Sep 2005, skaller wrote: > That I understand. Though note: noweb is written in Icon (under debian > noweb package requires iconx package .. that's the end, two binaries). You don't need Icon to untangle the Lua-ML sources, and build. Perl and make and all of that nonstandard stuff that runs on every Unix. I had no problems on vanilla solaris and RH linux sans Icon. [...snip...] > Oh yes, you have a problem: if you manually run noweb and fiddle > the result, then include that in your own product (which is what > I do all the time with 3pl software) then you have two SERIOUS > problems: > > (a) you can't easily synchronise with the upstream author That's the problem. > (b) you have the usual Licence problem, you whole project > is now probably a 'derived work' Public domain. > > Back to config files. Other languages like Python and Scheme could also be used > > as configuration files, but Lua is especially suitable when "non programmers" > > are writing the config scripts. > > I doubt that. I'm a programmer, and I spent some time with Lua. > Simple assignments in Lua are the same as Python: > > x = 1 > y = "Hello" > > Anything more complex is HARD, and much harder in Lua than No. It is easy, and I have (admittedly subjective) data from dozens of nonprogrammer engineers who use it, who formerly wrote config files in OCaml. So, forgive me if I don't take your word for it, but rather take theirs. Much config file data is tabular, and Lua has built in hash tables. > I actually looked at Lua as a replacement for Python > to control configuration but threw it out. I am very happy > now, sticking with Python I'm happy that you're happy! > In the end, I would have to recommend using a pure Ocaml > solution.. because if your Ocaml code embeds native Lua, > then you need your clients who are 'building from source' > to have a C compiler to compile Lua.. and you need to > provide build scripts to do it .. and .. its all a huge > mess. Perhaps you need to carefully read every line of my reply to David Mentre, or, even better, download Lua-ML and give it a try. There is a reason it is called Lua-ML (hint: it is entirely written in OCaml, no C/C++/Java/Felix!). > Ocaml is much easier to build .. except that people > insist on using 'findlib' and INRIA insists on NOT > supplying it as part of Ocaml. It's an old problem. > Sigh. GODI and Debian solve these problems entirely .. but they're > very heavy weight. I agree that the packaging issue is a big problem. One of the reasons I prefer OCaml to it's competitors is that it works well with a Unix style tool chain. If I used Windows, I might feel differently. -- Brian