> A couple of questions:
> 
>   - Why is it that JoCaml is a full OCaml distribution as opposed to
>   just a set of libraries plus a syntax extension.  Was there some 
>   particular
>   feature that required hacking the compiler directly, or was it just more
>   convenient to build it that way?

  As far as I know, access to the guts of the compiler is required at
  least for the following two features.

    - Specific typing rules.

    - Pattern matching compilation.
      See the buffer example in the doc for instance
      <http://jocaml.inria.fr/manual/concurrent.html#htoc20>

  Besides, JoCaml is not a full OCaml distribution. JoCaml is a restricted
  OCaml distribution. On the light side, JoCaml compilation is very fast;
  on the dark side, some of OCaml tools are not available, (camlp4, ocamlbuild,
  labltk..)


   
>   - What do you think the future of JoCaml is?  Any thoughts on whether
>   it will be supported in the future, and in particular whether it will get
>   merged back into the OCaml mainline tree?

    I can only wish a bright future to JoCaml :)

    Our team will support JoCaml.

    Merging JoCaml into the OCaml mainline tree is another story. We have
    no plans for that at the moment. Let us wait a bit for JoCaml success
    to deprecate OCaml thread libraries.

-- Luc