From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 Received: from mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr (mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.83]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 51223BB84 for ; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:18:41 +0200 (CEST) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: ArUBAL+a3EjOvjGxmmdsb2JhbACTIAEBAQEBCAsKBxEDoUGIJAM X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.33,314,1220220000"; d="scan'208";a="15388111" Received: from discorde.inria.fr ([192.93.2.38]) by mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr with ESMTP; 26 Sep 2008 17:18:41 +0200 Received: from mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr (mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.83]) by discorde.inria.fr (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id m8QFIbEo003306 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-SHA bits=128 verify=OK) for ; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:18:41 +0200 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: ArUBAL+a3EjOvjGxmmdsb2JhbACTIAEBAQEBCAsKBxEDoUGIJAM X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.33,314,1220220000"; d="scan'208";a="15388109" Received: from web54607.mail.re2.yahoo.com ([206.190.49.177]) by mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr with SMTP; 26 Sep 2008 17:18:40 +0200 Received: (qmail 7212 invoked by uid 60001); 26 Sep 2008 15:18:39 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Message-ID; b=1R8A9U2BOVTb7Wi1dQCdQpJhLlnFO41HXAyyLPwwVnKrQV4mcb83LvCW99T/o6mo/2fizCZTZk3eALIQznODI4DXjMaC1htTPjtznaw8nk3TZxitODlFreCkHCoogu2oh3UJOK8jX7iy/b7pSvAH38r4A2FQuLBqD3to+g38Kbk=; X-YMail-OSG: 7P9HeDUVM1nbE.zPoEa5kw.nsrFxYwnZ2QeUPH61Ij3Yy2oWuy76ThXPBVaEtBblYnycPSrRnnnuS5yhr9kvPtWGgXNXQ.gydAVY69Vf5r5WzGSeDyavN6ZhJ73c40_6nqhCuwSw5.Wu3R3OBc69rHwSBo0h7g-- Received: from [213.205.71.52] by web54607.mail.re2.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:18:39 PDT X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.218.2 Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:18:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Dario Teixeira Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Teaching ocaml programming To: Caml , Andrej.Bauer@andrej.com In-Reply-To: <48DCC7B8.4070700@fmf.uni-lj.si> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID: <715700.7037.qm@web54607.mail.re2.yahoo.com> X-Miltered: at discorde with ID 48DCFD4D.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail . ensmp . fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; ocaml:01 ocaml's:01 symlinks:01 gcc:01 cheers:01 ubuntu:98 invoke:01 unix:01 unix:01 caml-list:01 boot:01 boot:01 programming:03 programming:03 shell:04 Hi, Your problem is simplified by the fact you already have dual boot machines (if not, Richard's live CD idea is always a good option). Unix is Ocaml's natural habitat, and some of the problems you mentioned (like symlinks for Ocamlbuild) would simply go away if you boot into Ubuntu. I got the impression your students are not too familiar with Unix. Well, if that's the case I think in the long term they can only benefit by being exposed to it. I once had to teach 3rd year Compsci students the fundamentals of Unix programming in C. Much to my surprise, some of them didn't even know how to use basic shell commands or to invoke gcc! I guess my predecessors had sheltered them too much from the "big bad Unix". Now, I understand you may be reluctant to spend valuable class time teaching them the rudiments of Unix, but I reckon that if you provide them with the relevant configuration files they can be up and running in less than half an hour. And I bet that some of them may even discover that they prefer Unix. Cheers, Dario =0A=0A=0A