[wg-camlp4] Runtime types and no -pp(x)

[Sebastien Mondet]

Hi

Yet Another Proposal ™  :)

Here, at NYU-Bio we use camlp4 in two ways:

1. All the code is JaneSt-Core-styled and uses sexplib.syntax and
bin_prot.syntax

We also use an ('a, 'b) Result.t Lwt.t  monad everywhere but there is no
need for camlp4, monadic programming is perfectly fine with normal OCaml
syntax.

2. The web-app is fully Eliom-based: it uses the eliom{dep,c,opt}
tool-chain, so it is incompatible with sexplib.syntax (because it imposes
deriving) and takes ages to compile.
(if I had to start again the project, I think I would not use the syntax
part of ocsigen or at least limit it to one single file).


I think I have already lost too many hours of my life fixing camlp4-related
problems just for using type_conv, so:


The proposal:

Get something like dyntype [1] or what Pierre Chambart and Grégoire Henry
presented at OUD [2], into the main compiler.

type_conv and deriving will become obsolete.

Then, most people can get rid of any kind of syntactic preprocessing for
95% of their problems.

For the remaining 5%, they can use camlp4, camlp5, Fan, or write their own
code generator without imposing it to anyone else.



Cheers
Seb



[1] https://github.com/mirage/dyntype
[2] http://oud.ocaml.org/2012/#program
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