On 17-12-2007, David Allsopp <dra-news@metastack.com> wrote:
> Nicolas Pouillard wrote:
>
>>Excerpts from david.teller's message of Mon Dec 17 00:40:27 +0100 2007:
>>>     Hi,
>>Hi,
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> Can OCamlBuild install libraries, btw ?
>>
>>Not yet. I think that ocamlbuild will treat installation one day.
>
> 	Hang on a sec, if installation of libraries is on the ocamlbuild
> roadmap, surely when that time comes your time will be vastly better spent
> incorporating ocamlfind into the official OCaml distro instead?
>
> 	I'm aware that this sort of thing has been asked for before (and
> Xavier and others have given very good support-based reasons for why
> contributions to the OCaml codebase are kept to a minimum which I fully
> respect) but why waste your time reinventing a very well-constructed wheel?
> Do you have some amazing new installation features in mind (you may, of
> course!)?
>
> Just my 2p...

Just to give my 2 cents also, i fully agree with the view above. If
ocamlbuild could integrate with ocamlfind (for library installation and
for library use) this would be a great step.

The only thing I disagree with the above message, is that ocamlfind
should not be integrated into ocaml (i also think integrating ocamlbuild
is not the best move -- but that a VERY personnal point of view). I
think ocamlbuild should allow to very easily integrate with ocamlfind
(i.e. build something that as a semantic near the one provided by
ocamlfind for -package et al, and only provide a plugin to integrate
with ocamlfind). 

OCamlfind is the best tool around for managing libraries in ocaml.
OCaml distributions, like debian or godi, already provide a support for
it. Most of the time missing META file are even provided by these
distributions. Allowing an easy use of it could be a very good point for
all (and the continuation of an implicit policy).

I know there is already a piece of ocamlbuild plugin to integrate
ocamlfind, the BEST way to continue this work is to allow to fully
integrate ocamlfind and ocamlbuild through this work.

Regards,
Sylvain Le Gall