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To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr
From: Brighten Godfrey <pbg@cs.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Record field label locality
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:04:37 -0700
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X-Spam: no; 0.00; locality:01 ocaml:01 nodes:01 node:01 avoided:01 compiler:01 nodes:01 unambiguous:01 graph:01 graph:01 naming:01 define:02 seems:03 module:03 module:03 

Hi,

Here's something that I've wondered about for years; maybe someone  
here can enlighten me.  One of the few major annoyances in OCaml code  
style is that if I define a record in one module, say a Graph module:

     type t = {
         nodes : node_t array;
         }

then when I use it in another module, say with a graph variable `g',  
then I have to write `g.Graph.nodes' rather than `g.nodes'.

I can understand why a record field label has to be uniquely  
identified.  But can't the explicit naming of the Graph module  
usually be avoided, since the compiler will know that `g' is a  
`Graph.t'?  For example if I write something like

     let g : Graph.t = make_graph () in
     g.nodes

it seems to me that on the second line, the type of `g' and hence the  
meaning of `g.nodes' is unambiguous.

Thanks!
~Brighten Godfrey