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AristotlePagaltzis |
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[OCaml | http://www.ocaml.org] (Objective Caml) is a functional ProgrammingLanguage that's easy to learn and use yet amazingly powerful. It is a dialect of [ML] and features a powerful modules system, full support of ObjectOrientation, and an optimizing [Compiler]. |
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!! The [OCaml] implementation |
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There is a single OpenSource implementation of [OCaml] developed by INRIA (the main French research institute for computer science). A large community of users who don't want their code broken pressure the Ocaml development team to keep new versions standard or backwards compatible. [Python] and [Perl] are developed the same way. This approach works well once the community user is large enough. Ocaml's user community has been the necessary size for many years. |
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(An interpreter for the older [Caml Light | http://caml.inria.fr/overview-caml-light-eng.html] language is still available because it can be made to work on small computers, e.g. 286 PCs. It is a subset of Objective Caml, so there is little other reason to use it.) |
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!! ObjectOrientation |
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One of [OCaml]'s extensions to the original [ML] language is ObjectOrientation. [OCaml]'s [OOP] has everything you'd expect after using [Java] or [C++]. The syntax is quite different -- class declarations are much more compact. |
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PolymorphicTypes are a big improvement for container classes. In [C++] and [Java] container objects only recognise objects inside themselves as being members of the __Object__ class. You have to cast objects back the appropriate class when you remove them from the container. In [OCaml], if you want a container object to specifically contain objects that are of the class __fruitbat__, you can say so. |
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See [Objects in Caml | http://pauillac.inria.fr/ocaml/htmlman/manual005.html] |
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!! The [OCaml] Library |
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[OCaml]'s library is divided into: |
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* a [core library |http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/htmlman/manual033.html], types and function available at all times |
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* an implementation independent [standard library | http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/htmlman/manual034.html], modules that can be imported |
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* a set of [optional libraries | http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/htmlman/index.html#p:library] that are either implementation dependent or special purpose |
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The <tt>str</tt> RegularExpression library that comes with [OCaml] is rather clumsy. I recommend the [PCRE | http://www.ai.univie.ac.at/~markus/home/ocaml_sources.html] library instead. |
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!! See also |
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* [The Caml language | http://caml.inria.fr/] |
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* [Developing Applications With Objective Caml | http://caml.inria.fr/oreilly-book/] by O'Reilly |
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* [Software in OCaml | http://www.npc.de/ocaml/linkdb/] |
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* [An OCaml tutorial | http://www.merjis.com/developers/ocaml_tutorial] |
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* [The Caml Link Database | http://www.npc.de/ocaml/linkdb/] |
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* [The Hump | http://caml.inria.fr/humps/index.html] |
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----- |
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CategoryProgrammingLanguages, CategoryFunctionalProgrammingLanguages |
