Re: [Caml-list] [ANNOUNCE] Development versions: ocamlconf, ASPCC

["Issac Trotts" <ijtrotts@ucdavis.edu>]

On Tue, Mar 02, 2004 at 05:47:57PM -0800, Kenneth Knowles wrote:
> Hello caml-list,
> 
> I have two projects that I haven't polished to a release state, but I'm hoping
> someone might be interested in, so I'm offering access via darcs
> (http://www.abridgegame.org/darcs)
> 
> (1) ocamlconf
> Ocamlconf is like autoconf but much simpler, utterly ocaml-centric, and
> dependent on findlib.
> 
> You can get it via the command
> 	'darcs get http://kefka.frap.net:8080/~kenn/repos/ocamlconf'

I guess you mean David's Advanced Revision Control System.  I had never
heard of this before your post.  There is no Debian package for this,
though it looks like a useful program.  

I wonder if Darcs could be modified to explicitly keep track of changes
to the ASTs of OCaml source files...

> What it is/does:
> *	An autoconf-like tool but using ocaml scripts instead of m4
> *	It uses the ocaml toplevel instead of bytecode for cross-version
> 	compatability
> *	Outputs a makefile and a simple config.ml

Could it output an OCaml script instead of a makefile?  It would
probably be easier to read, debug, and modify.

> *	It is _extremely_ simple to use, especially if your projects are 100% ocaml,
> 	like mine.  (A configure.ml comparable to a configure.ac might be 100
> 	lines for a complex project)
> 
> Why I didn't use autotools/ocamlmakefile/...:
> *	autotools are pretty C centric, and more of a pain than necessary for
> 	an ocaml project which already limits its audience to more-or-less modern
> 	users.  GNU must support very arcane and archaic setups, but ocamlconf aims
> 	to suport "anything with ocaml"
> *	anyone building an ocaml package with have the toplevel already
> *	OcamlMakefile is awkward with multiple targets (such as suites of utilities)
> 	and I'd rather write (or depend on) a simple ocaml script than a complex 
> 	Makefile
> *	And of course, I did it to see if I could make something simple and useful
> 	for myself - I've succeeded, as it is what I use for 100% of my ocaml
> 	projects

Thank you!

-- 
Issac Trotts
http://redwood.ucdavis.edu/~issac

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