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 JAA30853 for caml-redistribution; Fri, 29 Jan 1999 09:47:39 +0100 (MET) 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 WAA13047 for ; Thu, 28 Jan 1999 22:25:38 +0100 (MET) Received: from beach.frankfurt.netsurf.de (beach.frankfurt.netsurf.de [194.64.181.2]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id WAA19834 for ; Thu, 28 Jan 1999 22:25:36 +0100 (MET) Received: from schneemann.darmstadt.netsurf.de (board-90.darmstadt.netsurf.de [194.163.86.218]) by beach.frankfurt.netsurf.de (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id WAA01736 for ; Thu, 28 Jan 1999 22:25:36 +0100 (MET) Received: from localhost (localhost [[UNIX: localhost]]) by schneemann.darmstadt.netsurf.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) id WAA12483 for caml-list@inria.fr; Thu, 28 Jan 1999 22:25:06 +0100 From: Gerd Stolpmann Reply-To: Gerd.Stolpmann@darmstadt.netsurf.de To: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: If i had a hammer... Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 22:24:28 +0100 X-Mailer: KMail [version 0.7.9] Content-Type: text/plain References: <199901281102.MAA16126@miss.wu-wien.ac.at> MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <99012822230502.10116@schneemann> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: weis On Thu, 28 Jan 1999, Markus Mottl wrote: >I would really like to see a remote CVS-repository for OCAML somewhere. I >am sure this would very strongly help people contribute collectively >to projects written in OCAML. I have already asked at our university, >but people there are a bit reluctant with software that they don't know >so well and which allows remote access. > >Looking at other projects which make excessive use of this tool shows, >how productive it can make people. It also attracts a lot of them - >I think this would be really important for the whole OCAML-project. > A public repository would be great. You can simply see what's currently happening at a glance; it shows that there is really a community that favours Ocaml. I think there are several steps: - Find a server where the projects can be put - Write a Web interface to simplify download - Define a standard for documentation (very important for free software development) -- we can simply use an existing one such as 'info' or 'perldoc', or simply define a directory structure for html-pages - Define a standard how to compile and install projects such that they can be used together For the latter, I think a meta-makefile mechanism would be appropriate. As Ocaml links always statically, there should be a tool - that has as input a descriptive request what modules should be linked in - that outputs a perfect Makefile that knows the linking order and automatically calls ocamlc/ocamlopt/ocamlmktop -- whatever meets the given requests best For example, you could *describe* your request as follows: require Unix require Joe's_module require Mary's_module goal my_binary link my_binary = m1.cmo m2.cmo The meta-makefile processor reads this, searches in its database of already installed modules what files are really meant by the given requests, orders them such that they can be linked, and writes a Makefile that compiles m1.ml to m1.cmo, m2.ml to m2.cmo and links all the cmo and cma files. Note that a similar description could be given how to compile Joe's and Mary's modules. These can of course require third modules that must also be linked in. My suggestion addresses both installation of downloaded modules and how to use them. The really important point is that using modules found in a public repository must be very simple. It would discourage potential users if they had to read manuals very carefully to get the modules working. It should not be necessary to study and configure makefiles to do a simple thing like a software installation (people often think that installation is a simple process and a more or less an unproductive task). But the very first step is still to find a host for such a repository. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gerd Stolpmann Telefon: +49 6151 997705 (privat) Viktoriastr. 100 64293 Darmstadt EMail: Gerd.Stolpmann@darmstadt.netsurf.de (privat) Germany ----------------------------------------------------------------------------