type declaration in */mli & *.ml

[Basile STARYNKEVITCH <Basile.Starynkevitch@cea.fr>]

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Hello All,

It seems that when a type is declared in the interface of a module Moo
-ie in the file moo.mli- it should also be declared in the
implementation of the same module Moo -ie in the file moo.ml-.

For instance, in directory ocaml-1.02/toplevel the file toploop.mli
contains

(*################ from toplevel/toploop.mli *)

(* Interface with toplevel directives *)

type directive_fun =
    Directive_none of (unit -> unit)
  | Directive_string of (string -> unit)
  | Directive_int of (int -> unit)
  | Directive_ident of (Longident.t -> unit)


(*############### end of sample ################*)

while the file toploop.ml also contains

(*############# from toplevel/toploop.ml ################*)

type directive_fun =
    Directive_none of (unit -> unit)
  | Directive_string of (string -> unit)
  | Directive_int of (int -> unit)
  | Directive_ident of (Longident.t -> unit)

(*################ end of sample ################*)

I don't understand why is it so, and I feel such a redundancy is very
annoying.

Any hints or explanations?

(perhaps I could paraphrase my question: does an implementation file
moo.ml of a module Moo contain an implicit open Moo;; ??)

Thanks for reading.

N.B. Any opinions expressed here are solely mine, and not of my organization.
N.B. Les opinions exprimees ici me sont personnelles et n engagent pas le CEA.

Please cite a *pertinent part* of my mail in all answers
Veuillez citer une *partie pertinente* de mon courrier dans vos reponses



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Basile STARYNKEVITCH   ----  Commissariat à l Energie Atomique 
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email: Basile.Starynkevitch@cea.fr (or else basile@soleil.serma.cea.fr);  
I speak french, english, russian. Je parle français, anglais, russe.
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