Re: [Caml-list] What are "Language extensions"?

[Mike Lin <mikelin@mit.edu>]

My strong impression is that many of the "language extensions" are
each an INRIA student's thesis :)

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Lauri Alanko <la@iki.fi> wrote:
> In the O'Caml reference manual, the actual language specification is
> split into two parts, "The Objective Caml language" and "Language
> extensions". I'm curious as to what this division indicates about the
> status of different features of the language. The manual itself
> doesn't help much, since the extensions chapter only opens with:
>
>        This chapter describes language extensions and convenience
>        features that are implemented in Objective Caml, but not
>        described in the Objective Caml reference manual.
>
> In other words, "this chapter is for the stuff that isn't in the
> previous chapter". Not very informative.
>
> What, then, does it mean for something to be an extension instead of a
> part of the "basic" language? Is it about backwards compatibility
> (e.g. the basic language is guaranteed to work with every 3.x
> release)? Or about forward compatibility (e.g. some extensions might
> not be supported in a future 3.x release)? Or about stability? Will
> some of the extensions eventually be incorporated into the "basic"
> language?
>
> The structure of the manual clearly implies that I as a programmer
> should take into account that a feature is an "extension". I just
> have no idea what I should do with that knowledge.
>
>
> Lauri
>
> --
> Caml-list mailing list.  Subscription management and archives:
> https://sympa-roc.inria.fr/wws/info/caml-list
> Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
> Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs
>
>