>>>>> "Daniel" == Daniel de Rauglaudre <daniel.de_rauglaudre@inria.fr> writes:
    Daniel>  On Wed, Sep 05, 2001 at 03:03:35AM +0200,
    Daniel> Christian RINDERKNECHT wrote:

[...]

    >> As an aside: the performance of my parser was not a concern,
    >> feasability was the main challenge. I nevertheless understand
    >> it can be an important issue. I understood there was a plan to
    >> remove the [< >] from OCaml, and to request users using camlp4,
    >> is it correct?

    Daniel> Yes. Is it a problem?

Perhaps. standard Ocaml input is done (with the exception of low level
input such as Pervasives.read_line etc....) with the "19.10 Module
Genlex: a generic lexical analyzer" whose documentation mentions
explicitly the [< >] construct.

Several ocaml programs would like to do input without a specific lexer
or a parser. This is done thu Genlex which need the [< >] construct.

I suggest maintaining the [< >] for a while -ie for several years-
(perhaps marking it explicitly as deprecated in the documentation). It
should be probably acceptable to have the [< >] construct handled by a
standard campl4 module, especially if/when camlp4 will be merged into
the main ocaml package.

Should the Genlex module be deprecated, a newer way of making high
level input should be proposed. My opinion is that it should *not* be
modelled on C's infamous scanf.

Formatted input should particularily well be explained, since it is a
function needed by all newcomers. The first program you write is a
hello world, and the second one asks for your name and age and tells
you hello :-)


Best regards to all


**resumé en français:

les flots par [< >] sont indispensables au module Genlex. Ils ne
devraient donc pas être violemment supprimés (avant plusieurs
années). Si Genlex disparaissait, il faudrait un autre procédé de lecture
de haut niveau (autre que Pervasives.read_line et consors). A mon avis
il ne faut surtout pas s' inspirer de l' infâme scanf du C.

Les entrées formattées doivent être bien documentées car elles sont
indispensables au débutant.

Cordialement

N.B. Any opinions expressed here are only mine, and not of my organization.
N.B. Les opinions exprimees ici me sont personnelles et n engagent pas le CEA.

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