On 12/29/06, Mattias Engdegård <mattias@virtutech.se> wrote:
> >In general, I wouldn't explicitly advise against using single
> >constructor type definitions for documentation, except when the
> >argument is a single int or float and performance matters.
>
> Is there a reason for this? To my innocent eyes, code like
>
>   type length = Length of int
>
> looks quite reasonable and could be useful at times.

I agree.  Sadly, the ocaml devs don't.

http://caml.inria.fr/mantis/view.php?id=3978

As Xavier points out, one can use modules to hide basic types, but
this is pretty clumsy in practice.  There's rumored to be a solution
using phantom types, but my attempts don't work:

# type 'a boink = int;;
type 'a boink = int
# let f = (20 : string boink);;
val f : string boink = 20
# let g = (30 : int boink);;
val g : int boink = 30
# f;;
- : string boink = 20
# g;;
- : int boink = 30
# f + g;;
- : int = 50

> If binary compatibility with old OCaml releases would be the reason,
> is there a policy stating when such ABI details can be changed?

The ocaml devs have been quite clear that the ABI can change at any
time, so that's not the reason.

Cheers,
-n8

-- 
>>>-- Nathaniel Gray -- Caltech Computer Science ------>
>>>-- Mojave Project -- http://mojave.cs.caltech.edu -->