Basile Starynkevitch wrote "Wed, 05 Sep 2001 10:02:59 +0200." :
> >>>>> "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.
>

I would strongly support Basile's proposal to retain the [< >] in Ocaml core 
syntax.  I have been using Caml/Ocaml for 5-6 years and I have found that a 
high proportion of the programs I have written recently have used [< >] stream 
parsing.  The convenience of having this parsing facility within the Ocaml 
syntax should not be underestimated particularly for program development under 
the toplevel.

> 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: deleted]
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Basile STARYNKEVITCH   ----  Commissariat à l Energie Atomique * France
> DRT/LIST/DTSI/SLA * CEA/Saclay b.528 (p111f) * 91191 GIF/YVETTE CEDEX 
> work email: Basile point Starynkevitch at cea point fr 
> home email: Basile point Starynkevitch at wanadoo point fr 
> -------------------

Alex Cowie
Research Fellow, Advanced Computing Research Centre
University of South Australia


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