Re: Bytes module versus String module.

"Gabriel Scherer [email protected] [ocaml_beginners]" <[email protected]> Wed, 8 Feb 2017 17:12:31 +0100
Newsgroups gmane.comp.lang.ocaml.beginners
Message-ID <CAPFanBHRRYCpYhJUU1yrt4tnEsBQ0E=RO9thP6yL315wzYaHAg@mail.gmail.com>
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Because computing the tail takes time and space linear in the size of the
tail, repeatedly computing the tail of a string is quadratic: (tail
"Gabriel") allocates (at least) 6 bytes, (tail "abriel") 5 bytes, (tail
"briel") 4 bytes, etc., in total you allocate (at least) 21 bytes just to
traverse a string of 7 characters (in general it's n*(n-1)/2). On the
contrary, taking the tail of a list returns instantly and allocates nothing
(in OCaml; for Python, you might be in trouble, although it's hard to tell
as common operations are optimized, muddying the performance mental model).

You can write code more efficiently without using a more powerful library
(String or other), just using a programming style that is more suited to
lists. My advice to my students (that always start by falling in the same
pitfall as you) is to manipulate *indices* in the string, rather than the
string directly, in their recursive manipulations.

In the case of your example, I would propose for example the following
structure:

let remove_spaces str =3D
  let len =3D String.length str in
  let word start cur =3D
    String.sub str start (cur - start) in
  let rec skip i acc =3D
    ...
  and read start cur acc =3D
    ...
  in
  List.rev (skip 0 [])

where (skip i acc) skips characters that are spaces (it's parameter (i) is
the first character to look at), and (read start cur acc) reads a word:
(start) is the position of the first letter already found in the word,
(cur) is the current position to examine (it may be a letter, in which case
the words continue, or a space, in which case the word is complete). (acc)
is the accumulator, the list of words found previously (in reverse order).
(skip) calls (read) when it finds a non-space; when (read) finds a space,
it adds a word to (acc) and calls (skip). Finally, (word start cur) is
called when (start) is known to be the first non-space character of a word
and (cur) is known to be the first space character after a word, and
returns the word.

(It is possible to traverse the string in the reverse order, from end to
beginning, to avoid having to reverse the accumulator in the end. But I
find it easier to program in this way; then I can always derive the
reversed version from it if I want to be even more efficient. The reversed
version uses a (word) function with different assumptions, (word cur stop),
where (cur) is known to be the first space before a word and  (stop) the
last position of a character in the word, so its code is a bit different).


On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 4:27 PM, Douglas Lewit [email protected]
[ocaml_beginners] <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Gabriel,
>
> I appreciate the feedback.  A couple questions.... first off, regarding
> the -safe-string flag.... is that an option only for compiling OCaml code=
?
> Or can that be entered into the top level ( for example, utop ) ?
>
> Yes, I really do enjoy the recursive treatment of lists.  OCaml provided
> my first experience with the head/tail paradigm of list-processing,
> although I have found that the same paradigm can be applied to lists in
> Ruby and Python as well, although in Ruby and Python the syntax is luckil=
y
> simpler than in OCaml.  In Python for example if I have a list, called ls=
t,
> I can do:
>
> head =3D lst[0]
> tail    =3D lst[1:]
>
> and from there I can build my recursive algorithm.
>
> Also, I've been playing around with Haskell a little ( although I am by n=
o
> means a Haskell pro ) and in that language strings are really lists of
> chars, so any recursive algorithm that you can apply to a list can also b=
e
> applied to a string because in Haskell strings are really lists.
>
> Yes, you're right about matching on chars.  I don't know why I felt the
> need to match on a string instead, but.... oh well.
>
> Regarding your first criticism of my function.... I'm not sure I follow
> you on that one.  Let's say you have a string called "Gabriel".  It seems
> that the head/tail analysis of the string should be pretty efficient.  So
> for example:
>
> head "Gabriel" ---> "G"
> tail    "Gabriel" ---> "abriel"
>
> and I keep repeating until finally I have:
>
> head "l"  ---> "l"
> tail    "l"  --->  ""  ( the empty string )
>
> It seems logical that for the sake of string manipulation the natural bas=
e
> case should be the empty string, just as the empty list often provides th=
e
> base case for recursive algorithms that are implemented on lists.
>
> Is there a more efficient approach?  I know the Str module contains some
> shortcuts, but I don't like to depend on too many shortcuts.  It's more f=
un
> to design and implement my own algorithms for solving some of these
> problems, although in a pinch shortcuts are great.
>
> Best,
>
> Douglas.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 5:42 PM, Gabriel Scherer [email protected]
> [ocaml_beginners] <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> String represents (immutable) text, while Bytes represent (mutable)
>> arrays of bytes. Right now, we are in a transition period where the stri=
ng
>> type played both roles, and in particular was always mutable (which is n=
ot
>> a very good idea): by default, during this transition period, the two ty=
pes
>> `string` and `bytes` are compatible (you can use functions of one on the
>> other). If you enable the `-safe-string` flag, then the two types will b=
e
>> considered incompatible; using it in your code is good practice, and it
>> will become the default in a future OCaml version.
>>
>> Regarding your code:
>> - repeatedly calling String.sub is inefficient; you want to count the
>> number of spaces at the beginning and call String.sub just once
>> - there is no need to use String.make here, you can match on a character
>> directly ('c' instead of "c")
>>
>> Your code is relatively typical of people that enjoy recursively
>> processing lists, and try to apply the same approach to strings. Because
>> the "tail" operation on strings takes linear (O(n)) instead of constant
>> (O(1)) time, this is not a very good idea performance-wise. Reading
>> characters at any position is fine, but the rest (String.sub, string
>> concatenation (^)...) should be used as sparsely as possible -- preferab=
ly
>> not at each recursive call.
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 11:35 PM, Douglas Lewit [email protected]
>> [ocaml_beginners] <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> I wrote the following functions.
>>>
>>>
>>> *(* The function removeSpacesFromString' relies on the function
>>> removeSpacesFromString.  removeSpacesFromString' takes a string *
>>> *   such as "How are you doing" and parses it into a list of separate
>>> words.  In this case for example, removeSpacesFromString' *
>>> *   will return ["How"; "are"; "you"; "doing"]. *)*
>>>
>>>
>>> *let rec removeSpacesFromString s w l =3D match Bytes.length s with *
>>> *                                              |0 -> List.rev begin [w]
>>> :: l end*
>>> *                                              |_ -> match Bytes.make 1
>>> ( Bytes.get s 0 ) with *
>>> *                                                    |" " ->
>>> removeSpacesFromString ( Bytes.sub s 1 ( Bytes.length s - 1 ) )  ""  **=
([w]
>>> :: l)*
>>> *                                                    |_   ->
>>> removeSpacesFromString ( Bytes.sub s 1 ( Bytes.length s - 1 ) ) *
>>> *                                                               begin w
>>> ^ ( Bytes.make 1 ( Bytes.get s 0 ) )  end l ;;*
>>>
>>>
>>> *let removeSpacesFromString' s =3D List.flatten begin
>>> removeSpacesFromString s "" [] end ;;*
>>>
>>>
>>> The functions work exactly as I want them to, which is great!  But just
>>> for the sake of experimentation I tried to substitute the "String" modu=
le
>>> for the "Bytes" module into the first function above.  Well guess what?
>>> Nothing really changed!  I still get the exact same results as before,
>>> which leads to an interesting question.  How is the Bytes module differ=
ent
>>> from the String module?  I sort of get the impression from the online
>>> documentation that the Bytes module is the "new and improved" version o=
f
>>> the String module, but if that's the case then why doesn't INRIA just
>>> delete the String module from OCaml's Standard Library?  Are the two
>>> libraries pretty much the same?  How is the Bytes library better than t=
he
>>> String library?  What would happen if INRIA just decided to remove the
>>> String library from the next major version of OCaml?
>>>
>>> One quick question here before I send my email.  How much does OCaml
>>> depend on C?  I know that Python and Ruby are essentially very large "C
>>> applications" in the sense that the interpreters for those languages ar=
e
>>> coded in the C language.  ( Or at least that's what I have read online.=
 )
>>>  What about OCaml.  How is OCaml's compiler implemented?  Is the OCaml
>>> compiler written in C?  Or written in something else?
>>>
>>> I appreciate your feedback and thanks!
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Douglas Lewit
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>=20
>

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      <p><div dir=3D"ltr"><div><div><div>Because computing the tail takes t=
ime and space linear in the size of the tail, repeatedly computing the tail=
 of a string is quadratic: (tail &quot;Gabriel&quot;) allocates (at least) =
6 bytes, (tail &quot;abriel&quot;) 5 bytes, (tail &quot;briel&quot;) 4 byte=
s, etc., in total you allocate (at least) 21 bytes just to traverse a strin=
g of 7 characters (in general it&#39;s n*(n-1)/2). On the contrary, taking =
the tail of a list returns instantly and allocates nothing (in OCaml; for P=
ython, you might be in trouble, although it&#39;s hard to tell as common op=
erations are optimized, muddying the performance mental model).<br><br></di=
v>You can write code more efficiently without using a more powerful library=
 (String or other), just using a programming style that is more suited to l=
ists. My advice to my students (that always start by falling in the same pi=
tfall as you) is to manipulate *indices* in the string, rather than the str=
ing directly, in their recursive manipulations.<br><br>In the case of your =
example, I  would propose for example the following structure:<br><br>let r=
emove_spaces str =3D<br>=C2=A0 let len =3D String.length str in<br>=C2=A0 l=
et word start cur =3D<br>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 String.sub str start (cur - sta=
rt) in<br>=C2=A0 let rec skip i acc =3D<br>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 ...<br>=C2=A0=
 and read start cur acc =3D<br>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 ...<br>=C2=A0 in<br>=C2=
=A0 List.rev (skip 0 [])<br><br></div><div>where (skip i acc) skips  charac=
ters that are spaces (it&#39;s parameter (i) is the first character to look=
 at), and (read start cur acc) reads a word: (start) is the position of the=
 first letter already found in the word, (cur) is the current position to e=
xamine (it may be a letter, in which case the words continue, or a space, i=
n which case the word is complete). (acc) is the accumulator, the list of w=
ords found previously (in reverse order). (skip) calls (read) when it finds=
 a non-space; when (read) finds a space, it adds a word to (acc) and calls =
(skip). Finally, (word start cur) is called when (start) is known to be the=
 first non-space character of a word and (cur) is known to be the first spa=
ce character after a word, and returns the word.<br><br></div><div>(It is p=
ossible to traverse the string in the reverse order, from end to beginning,=
 to avoid having to reverse the accumulator in the end. But I find it easie=
r to program in this way; then I can always derive the reversed version fro=
m it if I want to be even more efficient. The reversed version uses a (word=
) function with different assumptions, (word cur stop), where (cur) is know=
n to be the first space before a word and=C2=A0 (stop) the last position of=
 a character in the word, so its code is a bit different).<br></div><div><b=
r></div></div></div><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br><div class=3D"gmail_quot=
e">On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 4:27 PM, Douglas Lewit <a href=3D"mailto:delewit@=
gmail.com">[email protected]</a> [ocaml_beginners] <span dir=3D"ltr">&lt;<a=
 href=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=3D"_blank">ocaml_be=
[email protected]</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gmail=
_quote" style=3D"border-left:1px #ccc solid;">






=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20




<div>





<br><br>




<div dir=3D"ltr"><font size=3D"4">Hi Gabriel,</font><div><font size=3D"4"><=
br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4">I appreciate the feedback.=C2=A0 A co=
uple questions.... first off, regarding the -safe-string flag.... is that a=
n option only for compiling OCaml code?=C2=A0 Or can that be entered into t=
he top level ( for example, utop ) ? =C2=A0</font></div><div><font size=3D"=
4"><br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4">Yes, I really do enjoy the recurs=
ive treatment of lists.=C2=A0 OCaml provided my first experience with the h=
ead/tail paradigm of list-processing, although I have found that the same p=
aradigm can be applied to lists in Ruby and Python as well, although in Rub=
y and Python the syntax is luckily simpler than in OCaml.=C2=A0 In Python f=
or example if I have a list, called lst, I can do:</font></div><div><font s=
ize=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4">head =3D lst[0]</font></di=
v><div><font size=3D"4">tail =C2=A0 =C2=A0=3D lst[1:]</font></div><div><fon=
t size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4">and from there I can bu=
ild my recursive algorithm. =C2=A0</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></=
font></div><div><font size=3D"4">Also, I&#39;ve been playing around with Ha=
skell a little ( although I am by no means a Haskell pro ) and in that lang=
uage strings are really lists of chars, so any recursive algorithm that you=
 can apply to a list can also be applied to a string because in Haskell str=
ings are really lists.</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><=
div><font size=3D"4">Yes, you&#39;re right about matching on chars.=C2=A0 I=
 don&#39;t know why I felt the need to match on a string instead, but.... o=
h well.</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=
=3D"4">Regarding your first criticism of my function.... I&#39;m not sure I=
 follow you on that one.=C2=A0 Let&#39;s say you have a string called &quot=
;Gabriel&quot;.=C2=A0 It seems that the head/tail analysis of the string sh=
ould be pretty efficient.=C2=A0 So for example:</font></div><div><font size=
=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4">head &quot;Gabriel&quot; ---&=
gt; &quot;G&quot;</font></div><div><font size=3D"4">tail =C2=A0 =C2=A0&quot=
;Gabriel&quot; ---&gt; &quot;abriel&quot;</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"=
><br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4">and I keep repeating until finally =
I have:</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=
=3D"4">head &quot;l&quot; =C2=A0---&gt; &quot;l&quot;</font></div><div><fon=
t size=3D"4">tail =C2=A0 =C2=A0&quot;l&quot; =C2=A0---&gt; =C2=A0&quot;&quo=
t; =C2=A0( the empty string )</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font>=
</div><div><font size=3D"4">It seems logical that for the sake of string ma=
nipulation the natural base case should be the empty string, just as the em=
pty list often provides the base case for recursive algorithms that are imp=
lemented on lists.</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div>=
<font size=3D"4">Is there a more efficient approach?=C2=A0 I know the Str m=
odule contains some shortcuts, but I don&#39;t like to depend on too many s=
hortcuts.=C2=A0 It&#39;s more fun to design and implement my own algorithms=
 for solving some of these problems, although in a pinch shortcuts are grea=
t.</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4"=
>Best,</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=
=3D"4">Douglas.</font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><fo=
nt size=3D"4">=C2=A0=C2=A0</font></div></div><div><div class=3D"h5"><div cl=
ass=3D"gmail_extra"><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 5=
:42 PM, Gabriel Scherer <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=
=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a> [ocaml_beginners] <span dir=3D"lt=
r">&lt;<a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=3D"_blank"=
>ocaml_beginners@yahoogroups.<wbr>com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote =
class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"border-left:1px #ccc solid;">


<u></u>









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      <p></p><div dir=3D"ltr"><div><div><div><div>String represents (immuta=
ble) text, while Bytes represent (mutable) arrays of bytes. Right now, we a=
re in a transition period where the string type played both roles, and in p=
articular  was always mutable (which is not a very good idea): by default, =
during this transition period, the two types `string` and `bytes` are compa=
tible (you can use functions of one on the other). If you enable the `-safe=
-string` flag, then the two types will be considered incompatible; using it=
 in your code is good practice, and it will become the default in a future =
OCaml version.<br><br></div>Regarding your code:<br></div>- repeatedly call=
ing String.sub is inefficient; you want to count the number of spaces at th=
e beginning and call String.sub just once<br></div>- there is no need to us=
e String.make here, you can match on a character directly (&#39;c&#39; inst=
ead of &quot;c&quot;)<br><br></div>Your code is relatively typical of peopl=
e that enjoy recursively processing lists, and try to apply the same approa=
ch to strings. Because the &quot;tail&quot; operation on strings takes line=
ar (O(n)) instead of constant (O(1)) time, this is not a very good idea per=
formance-wise. Reading characters at any position is fine, but the rest (St=
ring.sub, string concatenation (^)...) should be used as sparsely as possib=
le -- preferably not at each recursive call.<br></div><span><div class=3D"g=
mail_extra"><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 11:35 PM,=
 Douglas Lewit <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=3D"_blank">delew=
[email protected]</a> [ocaml_beginners] <span dir=3D"ltr">&lt;<a href=3D"mailto:=
[email protected]" target=3D"_blank">ocaml_beginners@yahoogro=
ups.c<wbr>om</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" sty=
le=3D"border-left:1px #ccc solid;">






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<br><br>




<div dir=3D"ltr"><font size=3D"4">Hi everyone,</font><div><font size=3D"4">=
<br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4">I wrote the following functions.</fo=
nt></div><div><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div><font size=3D"4" color=
=3D"#cc0000"><b><br></b></font></div><div><font size=3D"4"><div><b><font co=
lor=3D"#20124d">(* The function removeSpacesFromString&#39; relies on the f=
unction removeSpacesFromString. =C2=A0removeSpacesFromString&#39; takes a s=
tring=C2=A0</font></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">=C2=A0 =C2=A0su=
ch as &quot;How are you doing&quot; and parses it into a list of separate w=
ords.=C2=A0 In this case for example, removeSpacesFromString&#39;=C2=A0</fo=
nt></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">=C2=A0 =C2=A0will return [&quo=
t;How&quot;; &quot;are&quot;; &quot;you&quot;; &quot;doing&quot;]. *)</font=
></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d"><br></font></b></div><div><b><fo=
nt color=3D"#20124d"><br></font></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">l=
et rec removeSpacesFromString s w l =3D match Bytes.length s with=C2=A0</fo=
nt></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 |0 -&gt; List.r=
ev begin [w] :: l end</font></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">=C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 |_ -&gt; match Bytes.make 1 ( Bytes.get s 0 ) with=C2=A0</font><=
/b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=
 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 |=
&quot; &quot; -&gt; removeSpacesFromString ( Bytes.sub s 1 ( Bytes.length s=
 - 1 ) ) =C2=A0&quot;&quot; =C2=A0</font></b><b><font color=3D"#20124d">([w=
] :: l)</font></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 |_ =C2=A0 -&gt; removeSpacesFromString ( Bytes.sub s 1 ( =
Bytes.length s - 1 ) )=C2=A0</font></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d=
">=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0begin w ^ ( Bytes.make 1 ( Bytes.get s 0 ) ) =C2=A0end l ;;</font></b></=
div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d"><br></font></b></div><div><b><font colo=
r=3D"#20124d"><br></font></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#20124d">let remo=
veSpacesFromString&#39; s =3D List.flatten begin removeSpacesFromString s &=
quot;&quot; [] end ;;</font></b></div><div><b><font color=3D"#cc0000"><br><=
/font></b></div><div><br></div><div>The functions work exactly as I want th=
em to, which is great!=C2=A0 But just for the sake of experimentation I tri=
ed to substitute the &quot;String&quot; module for the &quot;Bytes&quot; mo=
dule into the first function above.=C2=A0 Well guess what?=C2=A0 Nothing re=
ally changed!=C2=A0 I still get the exact same results as before, which lea=
ds to an interesting question.=C2=A0 How is the Bytes module different from=
 the String module?=C2=A0 I sort of get the impression from the online docu=
mentation that the Bytes module is the &quot;new and improved&quot; version=
 of the String module, but if that&#39;s the case then why doesn&#39;t INRI=
A just delete the String module from OCaml&#39;s Standard Library?=C2=A0 Ar=
e the two libraries pretty much the same?=C2=A0 How is the Bytes library be=
tter than the String library?=C2=A0 What would happen if INRIA just decided=
 to remove the String library from the next major version of OCaml?</div><d=
iv><br></div><div>One quick question here before I send my email.=C2=A0 How=
 much does OCaml depend on C?=C2=A0 I know that Python and Ruby are essenti=
ally very large &quot;C applications&quot; in the sense that the interprete=
rs for those languages are coded in the C language. =C2=A0( Or at least tha=
t&#39;s what I have read online. ) =C2=A0What about OCaml.=C2=A0 How is OCa=
ml&#39;s compiler implemented?=C2=A0 Is the OCaml compiler written in C?=C2=
=A0 Or written in something else?</div><div><br></div><div>I appreciate you=
r feedback and thanks!</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><=
div>Douglas Lewit</div><div><br></div></font></div></div>






<br>


<br>




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