[Teaching] Asking teachers: what support would you want to distribute OCaml to students ?

[Yaron Minsky]

Indeed!  The error messages are pretty horrible otherwise.

y

On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 8:40 PM, Ivan Gotovchits <ivg at ieee.org> wrote:
> Also, if you're working with Core, I highly suggest to add this line to
> .merlin:
>
> FLG -short-paths
>
> On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 8:33 PM, Yaron Minsky <yminsky at janestreet.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> By the way, getting merlin to work with pa_ounit is as simple as
>> adding a line that says
>>
>>     EXT ounit
>>
>> to the .merlin file.  I'd also recommend customizing the warnings.  I
>> do something like this:
>>
>>     FLG -w -4-33-40-41-42-43-34-44
>>
>> but the choice probably depends on the approach you're taking in the
>> class.  Enabling type-directed constructor disambiguation is probably
>> not a clear win for a class, for example.
>>
>> y
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 7:59 PM, David Walker <princedpw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Thanks. I forwarded this on to my students.  We'll see if some of them
>> > try
>> > it.
>> >
>> > Dave
>> >
>> > On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Yaron Minsky <yminsky at janestreet.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> There appears to be Merlin support for sublime text out there:
>> >>
>> >> https://github.com/Cynddl/sublime-text-merlin
>> >>
>> >> I think that coming up with good default setups for Merlin and the
>> >> remaining build tools would be nice too.  For example, you want the
>> >> compiler warnings in Merlin to mesh nicely with the ones you pick in
>> >> your build.
>> >>
>> >> y
>> >>
>> >> On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 2:06 PM, David Walker <princedpw at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > I agree that having good editor set-ups would be great.  I would love
>> >> > one
>> >> > that is compatible with Pa_ounit.
>> >> >
>> >> > By the way, I have also found that many of my students seem to prefer
>> >> > using
>> >> > sublime over emacs.
>> >> >
>> >> > Dave
>> >> >
>> >> > On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 1:15 PM, Yaron Minsky
>> >> > <yminsky at janestreet.com>
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> My sense from having talked to a bunch of people who are teaching
>> >> >> these classes in the US is that Windows is probably important longer
>> >> >> term, but short term there are other higher value things to improve
>> >> >> upon.  I think having good ways of doing graphical examples is
>> >> >> surely
>> >> >> one, and I tend to think that Javascript is a far better target than
>> >> >> X11.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> I'd also love to have good default editor setups that we could
>> >> >> deliver, perhaps through OPAM itself.  Having a nicely set up editor
>> >> >> configs with things like Merlin and ocp-indent working out of the
>> >> >> box
>> >> >> would be great.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> y
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 11:56 AM, Greg Morrisett
>> >> >> <greg at eecs.harvard.edu>
>> >> >> wrote:
>> >> >> > Ditto at Harvard.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > -Greg
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >> On Nov 26, 2014, at 10:44 AM, David Walker <princedpw at gmail.com>
>> >> >> >> wrote:
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> At Princeton, we also have lots of students with windows machines
>> >> >> >> and
>> >> >> >> support them by having them download a VM.
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> Dave
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 10:17 AM, Benjamin Greenman
>> >> >> >> <blg59 at cornell.edu>
>> >> >> >> wrote:
>> >> >> >> 1/ What systems does it need to work in ? Does that include
>> >> >> >> Windows
>> >> >> >> ?
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> For the functional programming course at Cornell, we dropped
>> >> >> >> Windows
>> >> >> >> support in favor of a vagrant vm [1] in Fall 2013 and have since
>> >> >> >> been much
>> >> >> >> happier. Students can just double-click a few things and have a
>> >> >> >> working
>> >> >> >> install (complete with extra packages like pa_ounit and qcheck),
>> >> >> >> and
>> >> >> >> staff
>> >> >> >> no longer needs to worry about cross-platform issues (especially
>> >> >> >> important
>> >> >> >> for GUIs).
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> [1] https://github.com/cs3110/vagrant-opam
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> >> >> Teaching mailing list
>> >> >> >> Teaching at lists.ocaml.org
>> >> >> >> http://lists.ocaml.org/listinfo/teaching
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> >> >> Teaching mailing list
>> >> >> >> Teaching at lists.ocaml.org
>> >> >> >> http://lists.ocaml.org/listinfo/teaching
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > _______________________________________________
>> >> >> > Teaching mailing list
>> >> >> > Teaching at lists.ocaml.org
>> >> >> > http://lists.ocaml.org/listinfo/teaching
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> Teaching mailing list
>> Teaching at lists.ocaml.org
>> http://lists.ocaml.org/listinfo/teaching
>
>