#show_module and module aliases

[vicuna]

Original bug ID: 7189
Reporter: @dbuenzli
Assigned to: @gasche
Status: closed (set by @xavierleroy on 2017-09-24T15:33:02Z)
Resolution: fixed
Priority: normal
Severity: minor
Version: 4.02.3
Target version: 4.03.1+dev
Fixed in version: 4.04.0 +dev / +beta1 / +beta2
Category: tools (ocaml{lex,yacc,dep,debug,...})
Monitored by: @hcarty @dbuenzli

Bug description

It seems that module aliases can significantly reduce the usefullness of #show_module in the toplevel. I think that #show_module should show all the equations and eventual definition in one go.

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36118521/show-module-tediousness-in-ocaml-utop
for an example.

[vicuna]

Comment author: @gasche

I proposed an implementation at #520. What do you think?

#520

[vicuna]

Comment author: @dbuenzli

Looks good.

[vicuna]

Comment author: @gasche

The proposed GPR is now merged in trunk.

Consider the input:

module A = struct let x = 1 end;;
module B = struct module M = A end;;
module C = B.M;;
module D = C;;
#show D;;

The output is as follows:

module D = C
module D = B.M
module D = A
module D : sig val x : int end

This is not perfect -- in particular I would like an explicit mention after the first line that the others are followed aliases -- but hopefully it already improves usability. It is hard to do much more without invasive code changes.

Anyone, please feel free to provide feedback on this feature so that we can improve it in the future.