Re: [Caml-list] use of ";;" when teaching Ocaml

[Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org>]

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Hello,

Thanks to everyone for your answers, this has given me much food for
thought.

On 2015-06-23 01:41, Philippe Wang <mail@philippewang.info> writes:

> In my opinion, it's a lot more relevant to use a very limited and very
> simple subset of OCaml when teaching to beginners. And this subset
> does not involve expressions at top-level because it's not worth the
> trouble.

I like this approach because it amounts to saying "one always starts
a phrase with 'let' or 'type'" (and later in the year there can be
'open', 'module', 'include'). I sure can live without top-level
expressions.

On the other hand, I also like the idea of terminating phrases, simply
because explaining when it terminates is not trivial otherwise, as
a 'let' may not be the beginning of a phrase.

> Also, using the interactive top-level loop is, in my opinion, not good
> for beginners. It should only be presented to those who already
> understand very well the "core" of OCaml. The most frequent issue with
> the top-level loop is that it gets in the way of the notion of
> compiling a program, and it might give the false impression that OCaml
> can be interpreted.

I am curious about this. My goal is to teach the language, and I find
that a REPL backed with a file works great to do this (using tuareg or
ocaml-top). What do you use to make sure students have a fast
compile/debug cycle?

Thanks again,

Alan

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