[ocaml-platform] Bytes

[Daniel Bünzli]

Le samedi, 25 juin 2016 à 21:01, Gabriel Scherer a écrit :
> > That looks like overkill to me, why don't we simply have a package that is up-to-date with the latest version of the compiler ?
>  
> Are you suggesting that released versions of base-bytes would be silently modified at each stdlib release to incoporate new functions?

Yes, I don't see why this would be a problem. As long as no API breaking changes are done — technically adding can be one because of the M.() notation but let's be realistic — there's no reason to bother people with constraints and there's no reason to bother the person responsible for the package to follow a particular discipline except being compatible with what is missing.

> On Sat, Jun 25, 2016 at 1:34 PM, Daniel Bünzli <daniel.buenzli at erratique.ch (mailto:daniel.buenzli at erratique.ch)> wrote:
> > Also even more confusing there's actually a `base-bytes` package in the OCaml OPAM repository.
>  
> This is actually a good idea, as it lets people announce a dependency on the base-bytes package instead of using a lower bound constraint on findlib.  

It may be a good idea but in its current incarnation it is confusing. First this package should be called `bytes`. I think that in general we should drop the `base-` forms to go towards the model where a $PKG name installs in $LIB/$PKG and try to avoid discrepancies between ocamlfind names and opam ones; note that for examples both result, maintained by Jane Street, and uchar, maintained by me lack this prefix. Second this package doesn't install bytes and I think it should, rather than ocamlfind doing it.

Best,  

Daniel