Why We Use OCaml

Re:Why We Use OCaml by dllthomas on Wednesday July 16, 2014 @03:31PM (#8044006)

Of course, you can build your own closure:

    void do_stuff_with_file(struct relevant_data *, FILE *);

    ...

    {
        struct relevant_data data = { ... }
        with_open_file_for_writing(do_stuff_with_file, data, filename);

    }

IMO, the biggest downside there being how far it typically pushes the definition of that function from the call site. Small functions - a good practice anyway - ameliorates that a bit.

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Re:Why We Use OCaml by zem on Wednesday July 16, 2014 @03:58PM (#8044162)

you can, but it's sufficiently clunky that it simply doesn't feel like a natural thing to do in the language. good language design is a lot more about the things it makes easy and natural than the things it makes possible.

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Re:Why We Use OCaml by dllthomas on Wednesday July 16, 2014 @04:27PM (#8044341)

"you can, but it's sufficiently clunky that it simply doesn't feel like a natural thing to do in the language."

It does to me, but I've done enough functional programming that I easily reach for concepts from that space.

"good language design is a lot more about the things it makes easy and natural than the things it makes possible."

Of course. I don't know where you got the idea I was saying closures aren't a good thing to have language support for. I said precisely the opposite.

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