From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id C508ED55E for ; Thu, 28 Jul 2005 18:35:08 +0200 (CEST) Received: from web30511.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web30511.mail.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.201.239]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with SMTP id j6SGZ747029460 for ; Thu, 28 Jul 2005 18:35:08 +0200 Received: (qmail 31596 invoked by uid 60001); 28 Jul 2005 16:35:07 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=ZNMfD7hp+0NKQW+V+T8QuAFEbSvvbHF1E5DrTO8woWPj8hzA3Ocxh/6UDIyK1FGHoiudbZTcXB08hMXlQT75gPq8sE2XyPuz4KLX5hJuhyfDJb0N8cjESt/jW8QKiX/uNpJ4300X69s9oF0Y8y1jPDWUyJ55/5mDuC2vzCa96XY= ; Message-ID: <20050728163507.31594.qmail@web30511.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Received: from [141.213.12.136] by web30511.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 28 Jul 2005 09:35:06 PDT Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 09:35:06 -0700 (PDT) From: David Thomas Subject: Re: [Caml-list] How to do this properly with OCaml? To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr In-Reply-To: <1122495098.6768.283.camel@localhost.localdomain> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Miltered: at nez-perce with ID 42E9093B.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 ocaml:01 arrays:01 ocaml:01 heap:01 pointer:01 pointer:01 pointers:01 arrays:01 unboxed:01 compiler:01 indirection:01 caml-list:01 beginner's:01 beginners:01 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.3 (2005-04-27) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: ** X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.2 required=5.0 tests=FORGED_YAHOO_RCVD autolearn=disabled version=3.0.3 Ah. I personally have a vendetta against floating point in general, so I'll stay away from that one then, as I don't want yet another discussion to degrade into a flame war. If anyone's curious about my thoughts on the matter in detail, they can feel free to email me directly, though. --- skaller wrote: > On Wed, 2005-07-27 at 08:35 -0700, David Thomas > wrote: > > I'm still curious what numerical algorithm is so > > desperately in need of variable length arrays... > > I think I was not clear. Normally Ocaml boxes > contain either an int or a heap pointer > to a data object. So a floating point value > is represented by a pointer. > > Doing numerical programming with an array > of pointers to floats instead of an > array of floats has a performance impact, > so Ocaml now provides arrays of unboxed floats. > > I wasn't referring to the need for variable length > arrays > in numerical code, but the need to circumvent boxing > in numerical code for arrays of numerical values: > this is considered significant enough to warrant > specialised compiler optimisations and data > structures. > > The point being, arrays of boxes are considered > inefficient, > and in some cases it is already considered > significant > enough for considerable work to be done to fix it. > > So arguing an extra indirection required for the > array of option solution to variable length arrays > is insignificant is contrary to the evidence that > INRIA already accepts it can be inefficient. > > Again, this is not to say variable length arrays > without this extra overhead should be provided, > just that the argument that the overhead is not > significant is suspect. > > -- > John Skaller net> > > > _______________________________________________ > Caml-list mailing list. Subscription management: > http://yquem.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/caml-list > Archives: http://caml.inria.fr > Beginner's list: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners > Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com