Non-destructive record update??

[Donald Syme <Donald.Syme@cl.cam.ac.uk>]

[Sorry - wrong subject on previous message]

I think O'Caml is absolutely excellent in general, but 
why doesn't it have some form of non-destructive record
field update, as in

type x = {y : int};;
let x = {y=1};;
(x.y <- 2).y = 2;;  (* true *)
x.y = 1;;           (* true *)

????  (well, at least I haven't found it if it does...)

If I have N fields in my records, and if I need non-destructive update
because I'm actually writing things functionally (rather common in
a functional language), then I end up writing N*N lines worth of
non-destructive update functions myself - yeach!  

Thanks in advance,
Don Syme

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