Re: [Caml-list] automatic extaction of the .mli (and a little more) from the .ml

[Malcolm Matalka <mmatalka@gmail.com>]

I know of no such tool, but in counter to your premise: I used to think
maintaining a .ml and .mli was foolish, however I no longer do.  .mli is
effectively documentation for me.  It contains a lot of comments and is
generally written to reflect how the API should be used rather than the
order in which I must express functions to get ta .ml to compile.  On
top of that, ocamlc will fail to compile if your .ml and .mli don't
match, so it's a valuable check that what I think my module does is also
what the compiler does.  I also tend to write the .mli first, then write
the .ml.  I find it to be a great way to develop.

In short, I think it's a good thing to maintain these things by hand.
But as for your original question I'm completely useless, sorry.

/M

Francois Berenger <berenger@riken.jp> writes:

> Hello,
>
> Is there some recommended tool/script to generate a .mli
> from the corresponding .ml?
>
> I want a little more than ocamlc -i:
>
> - I think there should be tags in the .ml file as comments
>   that say "export this" to the .mli.
>   By default, things are not exported.
> - maybe it should have an option to say to replicate
>   the ocamldoc comments in the .mli.
> - it could be nice if the order in which things are exported
>   to the .mli can be specified, maybe as an argument of the tag.
>   So that the .mli can be more readable (only backward references
>   to concepts, etc.)
>
> If there is a need to create a tool, let's call it "nomli". :)
>
> Regards,
> F.
>
> PS: I'm not going to maintain both a .mli and a .ml.
>     I feel it is a dumb and error-prone job and that
>     itches me.