On Mon, 2005-07-25 at 19:47 -0500, Brian Hurt wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 25 Jul 2005, skaller wrote:
> > On Sun, 2005-07-24 at 23:45 -0700, Stephane Glondu wrote:
> >
> > Well, basically the real topic is how to implement variable
> > length arrays. This is easy enough in C and C++: why should
> > it be very hard or even impossible in Ocaml?
> 
> It is, in fact, neither- *IF* you don't mind a little bit of inefficiency.

But I do. There is already an indirection due to boxing,
however that cost isn't always paid (for example reversing
the elements of an array doesn't require examining them)
and it is a fundamental property of Ocaml: 
nevertheless even this inefficiency cannot be tolerated
in numerical programs, and there are officially supported
special optimisations and array types to solve that problem.

> It's insisting that it be done without options that's tricky.

It isn't tricky, it just requires use of Obj.magic.

Given that there is a simple requirement for a simple
efficient data structure (analogous to C++ STL Vector)
but it needs magic to do properly, the varray is best
supplied by INRIA magicians.

-- 
John Skaller <skaller at users dot sourceforge dot net>