Re: Re: [Caml-list] Automatic generation of mli files

[Stefan Heimann <lists@stefanheimann.net>]

Hi,

On Mon, Jun 09, 2003 at 12:59:11PM +0800, Yang Shouxun wrote:
> On Saturday 07 June 2003 04:38, Jeffrey J. Cook wrote:
> > > On Fri, Jun 06, 2003 at 02:16:59PM -0500, Brian Hurt wrote:
> > >
> > > You could make an annotation in the comment of the method:
> > >
> > > (**
> > >   val add: t -> foo -> bar -> bang -> t
> > > *)
> > > let add a x y z = a
> >
> > Why not just:
> >
> > let add (a : t) (x : foo) (y : bar) (z : bang ) : t = ...
> >
> > I find this notation insanely helpful, especially for code inspection.
> 
> I guess annotation in the comment is preferrable, because that allows the 
> interface be more specific or general than the implementation.

The same can be achivieved with type constraints. But maybe it's the
best to offer both possibilities.
 
> I have raised the same issue last year. See the thread "automatic extraction 
> of mli file?" at http://caml.inria.fr/archives/200210/msg00273.html . 
> 
> My idea is to conceive the procedure as part of literate programming in OCaml, 
> though the feedback indicates my idea is not popular among the OCaml gurus by 
> that time.
> 
> I still believe the tool is very valuable and worthwile to develop. Or it can 
> be accomplished by enhancing ocamldoc. But I didn't try it.
> 
> If anybody wants to develop the tool, I'd be glad to discuss it further.

I've started and played around a little bit with different ways to
extract the information from the .ml file. I think the easiest way
to do it is the write a generator for ocamldoc. I'll clean up the code
written so far and send it to you by email (maybe today, maybe
tomorrow). Then we can discuss everything else.

Bye,
  Stefan

-- 
Stefan Heimann
http://www.stefanheimann.net :: personal website.
http://cvsshell.sf.net       :: CvsShell, a console based cvs client.

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