]> I'm very puzzled why after over 10 years, Caml did not acquire something like this ("Modern" languages seem to usually have it: Haskell has "read" and "show", e.g.) (* =========== module IO ================== *) module type AnyType = sig type t end type style = Binary | Caml | S_expr | XML exception Parse_error exception Type_error module type S = sig type t val from_channel: ?style:style -> in_channel -> t val from_string : ?style:style -> string -> t val from_buffer : ?style:style -> string -> int -> t val to_channel: ?style:style -> ?detect_sharing:bool -> out_channel -> t -> unit val to_string: ?style:style -> ?detect_sharing:bool -> t -> string val to_buffer: ?style:style -> ?detect_sharing:bool -> t -> string -> int-> int end module Make (Any : AnyType) : S with type t = Any.t (* ======================================== *) No explanation is necessary, I hope. IO module should to be type-safe and subsume Marshal and IOXML. This would, of course, require compiler support, since users can not do type introspection, even with Camlp4 (I remember reading some sort of pre-announcement about adding type introspection to Camlp4. How is that coming along?) BTW, there is a problem with labeled arguments within module signatures, right? -- Oleg Trott <oleg_trott@columbia.edu> ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners