[cwn] Attn: Development Editor, Latest OCaml Weekly News
Alan Schmitt
alan.schmitt at polytechnique.org
Tue Sep 8 06:37:23 PDT 2015
Hello,
Here is the latest OCaml Weekly News, for the week of September 01 to 08, 2015.
1) NaN representations
2) new mailing list for ocaml-containers users and developers
3) OCaml 2015 talks
4) [PATCH+PPX] Curried constructor
5) POSIX time implementation
6) Other OCaml News
========================================================================
1) NaN representations
Archive: <https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list/2015-09/msg00009.html>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Andreas Rossberg asked and Xavier Leroy replied:
> Does the Ocaml implementation make guarantees about the stable
> representation of floats? In particular, if I use Int64.float_of_bits to
> create a particular NaN representation, am I guaranteed that its bit
> pattern is maintained no matter where the value is stored or passed?
It depends on the underlying hardware. For instance, with x86-32 bits, some FP
moves go through the x87 FP stack, undergoing a double -> extended -> double
conversion. These conversions turn signaling NaNs into quiet NaNs, and I'm not
sure they preserve the other bits of the NaN payload.
On other platforms, esp. x86-64 bits, I'm pretty confident that NaN bits are
preserved by copying and parameter passing.
> We are currently in the process of implementing a reference interpreter
> for a little low-level language, and that tries to be as accurate as
> possible about float representations.
One possibility would be to represent your floats as int64 values (= their
bit-level representation), and convert only when you operate over them, e.g.
let fp_add x y = Int64.bits_of_float (Int64.float_of_bits x +.
Int64.float_of_bits y)
** Daniel Bünzli also replied:
I don't remember exactly but I think there may be issues with marshaling.
A quick search with in the bt leads to:
<http://caml.inria.fr/mantis/view.php?id=5038>
But there may be other to look at.
========================================================================
2) new mailing list for ocaml-containers users and developers
Archive: <https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list/2015-09/msg00015.html>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Simon Cruanes announced:
I have the pleasure to announce the creation of a new mailing list
(thanks to the ocaml forge) dedicated to any discussion about
ocaml-containers.
Page of the mailing list: <https://forge.ocamlcore.org/mail/?group_id=359>
Address of the mailing list: containers-users at lists.forge.ocamlcore.org
Containers is a modular and lightweight complement to the standard
library, featuring many data structures and helpers; its design is
oriented toward minimizing inter-modules dependencies and link-time
bloat. It does not depend on Unix or other C libraries. The license is
BSD, and it is possible and easy to copy single modules into your
projects if your boss doesn't like dependencies. The current version is
0.12, and releases are done roughly every one or two months.
Type `opam install containers` if you wish to install it.
More info on: <https://github.com/c-cube/ocaml-containers>
========================================================================
3) OCaml 2015 talks
Archive: <https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list/2015-09/msg00016.html>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Yotam Barnoy announced asked and Runhang Li replied:
> Anybody know if the OCaml talks will be up on ICFP's youtube channel
> (<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwRL68qZFfub1Ep1EScfmBw/videos>)?
ML family workshop just finished yesterday and I believe videos will be
shortly available. For OCaml workshop, it is going on right now.
========================================================================
4) [PATCH+PPX] Curried constructor
Archive: <https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list/2015-09/msg00020.html>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Jun Furuse announced:
I wrote curried-constr patch for OCaml 4.02.3. It makes variant
constructors usable like functions.
For the type definition
type t = Foo of int * float
we can write
Foo as (fun (x,y) -> Foo (x,y))
and
!Foo as (fun x y -> Foo (x,y))
There are two ways to try this extension: as a compiler modification,
and as a PPX preprocessor:
* opam switch 4.02.3+curried-constr (as a patched compiler)
* opam install ppx_curried_constr (as a PPX preprocessor)
========================================================================
5) POSIX time implementation
Archive: <https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list/2015-09/msg00022.html>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Markus W. Weißmann announced:
I was searching for an existing library implementing a clock_gettime(2)
function that would deliver a ?struct timespec? [1] with the current time.
I want it for my POSIX message queue implementation [2] for the timed
functions that require an absolute ?struct timespec? for their timeout.
So what a user of mqueue requires is a 1.) function to get the current time as
?struct timespec? and 2.) to add seconds/nanoseconds to such a value to create
a timeout.
The existing solutions I found:
* The Unix library [3] implements ?struct timeval? as float (only
microseconds, imho the float conversion is a bit of a hack ? a clever one
though)
* Netsys.clock_gettime from ocamlnet [4] implements ?struct timespec? but has
it as float/int for seconds/nanoseconds (whats with the float? All systems
I found use either in32 or int64 for time_t)
* Mtime [5] implements clock_gettime(2) but seems to only offers relative values
* Ptime [6] appears to be the uber-POSIX time implementation but lacks
clock_gettime (and probably always will)
I?d like my library to be a good OCaml citizen and _not_ implement my own
special purpose timing functions (which are incompatible to everyone else?s).
Ptime looks like the ultimate solution for the datatype; ocamlnet gets the
closest to my requirements ? while being a gigantic library most of which has
nothing to do with the domain of mqueue.
I?m a bit stuck on this one and would like to get some advice ? and/or
corrections if I misinterpreted one of the above solutions.
regards
-Markus
[1] <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/time.h.html>
[2] <http://mqueue.forge.ocamlcore.org/>
[3] <http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-ocaml/libref/Unix.html>
[4] <http://projects.camlcity.org/projects/dl/ocamlnet-4.0.4/doc/html-main/Netsys_posix.html>
[5] <http://erratique.ch/software/mtime>
[6] <http://erratique.ch/software/ptime>
** Gerd Stolpmann replied:
> * Netsys.clock_gettime from ocamlnet [4] implements ?struct timespec? but
> has it as float/int for seconds/nanoseconds (whats with the float? All
> systems I found use either in32 or int64 for time_t)
I picked float for ease of use, and better compatibility with the time
functions in Unix (which all use floats for time_t). Only the integral
part is put into the float which provides 52 bits for the mantissa, so
it is really large enough.
> I?d like my library to be a good OCaml citizen and _not_ implement my own
> special purpose timing functions (which are incompatible to everyone
> else?s).
> Ptime looks like the ultimate solution for the datatype; ocamlnet gets the
> closest to my requirements ? while being a gigantic library most of which
> has nothing to do with the domain of mqueue.
You'd only need the netsys part, which is practically standalone. None
of the other modules would get linked in. (I guess your are programming
for embedded platforms as POSIX message queues are typically found
there, and the size of executable probably matters.)
Of course you could also just copy the C code. OCamlnet has a liberal
license.
** Milan Stanojevi? also replied:
Jane Street's Core_kernel has Time_ns module. Time is represented as an int,
number of nanoseconds since unix epoch. Time_ns.now uses clock_gettime
(CLOCK_REALTIME)
There are also usual functions for operating on time and time spans.
Not sure if Core_kernel is too big for your project.
** Markus Weißmann finally added:
For the record:
I found another OCaml implementation of clock_gettime(2): oclock [7] (also
available via opam).
Unfortunately oclock implements 'struct timespec { time_t, long }' as int64,
making some conversion necessary, too.
regards
-Markus
[7] <http://micdel.fr/oclock.html>
========================================================================
6) Other OCaml News
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** From the ocamlcore planet blog:
Thanks to Alp Mestan, we now include in the OCaml Weekly News the links to the
recent posts from the ocamlcore planet blog at <http://planet.ocaml.org/>.
OCamlCore Forge Projects: ocaml-containers
<https://forge.ocamlcore.org/projects/containers/>
Github OCaml jobs: Full Time: Software Developer (Functional Programming) at Jane Street in New York, NY; London, UK; Hong Kong
<http://jobs.github.com/positions/0a9333c4-71da-11e0-9ac7-692793c00b45>
OCamlCore Forge Projects: OCaml Debian formats API
<https://forge.ocamlcore.org/projects/debian-formats/>
========================================================================
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