From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from weis@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id LAA09931 for caml-redistribution; Thu, 12 Aug 1999 11:51:50 +0200 (MET DST) 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 RAA11866 for ; Fri, 30 Jul 1999 17:33:07 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from iggy.triode.net.au (iggy.triode.net.au [203.63.235.1]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA18149 for ; Fri, 30 Jul 1999 17:33:01 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from egret (pm1-4.triode.net.au [203.63.235.20]) by iggy.triode.net.au (8.9.3/8.8.8) with SMTP id BAA02379; Sat, 31 Jul 1999 01:32:02 +1000 Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990731005526.009886b0@mail.triode.net.au> X-Sender: skaller@mail.triode.net.au X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32) Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 00:55:26 +1000 To: Hendrik Tews , caml-list@inria.fr From: John Skaller Subject: Re: Diagnostic bug? In-Reply-To: <199907271534.RAA15742@ithif20.inf.tu-dresden.de> References: <3.0.6.32.19990722165137.00976500@mail.triode.net.au> <199907181757.TAA31587@miss.wu-wien.ac.at> <3.0.6.32.19990722165137.00976500@mail.triode.net.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: weis At 17:34 27/07/99 +0200, Hendrik Tews wrote: >Hi, > >as an answer to John I am just telling my heuristics to track >down type errors: [...] >Therefore my strategy is to add type annotations at the first use >of the problematic identifiers, Ah, thank you! This is a good rule. >John Skaller writes: > > In my actual code, I got an error > in a 5000 character expression, and it took three > days to figure out the error wasn't in that expression > at all. > >You are right, error reporting is one of the weak points of the >ocaml system. Error reporting is a 'higher order' function of a compiler: it is the weakest part of almost all compilers. In fact, I find ocaml error reporting quite reasonable compared with other systems. For example, just try tracking down errors in complex template instantiations in C++. ------------------------------------------------------- John Skaller email: skaller@maxtal.com.au http://www.maxtal.com.au/~skaller phone: 61-2-96600850 snail: 10/1 Toxteth Rd, Glebe NSW 2037, Australia