I'm happier with Ocaml every day.  :-D

Robert Fischer
IT Firefighter
Smokejumper Consulting



Mattias Engdegård wrote:
>> I don't have a top-level with me right now, so I'm shooting from the 
>> hip, but I don't think it is a compile-time error to attempt to use the 
>> referential equality operator on two different types.
>>     
>
> No, (==) : 'a -> 'a , so this would work:
>
> module Sym : sig
>   type t 
>   val symbol : string -> t  
>   val str : t -> string
> end = struct 
>   type t = string
>   let symbol =
>     let m = Hashtbl.create 1 in
>       fun s ->
>        try Hashtbl.find m s
>        with Not_found -> (Hashtbl.add m s s; s)
>   let str s = s
> end;;
>
> # "toto" == "alpha" ;;
> - : bool = false
> # Sym.symbol "alpha" == Sym.symbol "alpha" ;;
> - : bool = true
> # Sym.symbol "alpha" == "alpha" ;;
> Characters 22-29:
>   Sym.symbol "alpha" == "alpha" ;;
>                         ^^^^^^^
> This expression has type string but is here used with type Sym.t
>
> The cost is a slightly clumsier use of symbols as strings (Symbol.str),
> but my feeling is that the extra safety is worth it.
>
>