Disclaimer This project is a joke and should be taken seriously only by people without humor.
This project provides the ppx_useless OCaml compiler extension, that
replaces the code with the following statement:
let () = ()Now this might seem controversial to the casual, but there are benefits to be had.
Useless features:
- Reduces compile errors
- Reduces runtime errors
- Reduces binary size
- Simplifies debugging
- Increases speed
- Decreases memory usage (both at compile-time and run-time)
Useful features:
- Wastes CPU cycles, which in turn heats your room
- There's at least a possibility that the program produces the desired output, which means that any input would suffice as a solution, which in turn saves time for the programmer.
However, some programs are not expected to terminate (e.g. server programs)
and for those kinds of programs the ppx_diverge is provided that replaces
every expression with:
let rec diverge () = diverge () in diverge ()which provides the desired non-termination. An added benefit here is that there's no longer any need for messing about with configuration files!
Here the observant reader interjects: "But even a trivial but deterministic program can be useful (e.g. /bin/true)!"
True, true is a very useful program and to address that the ppx_nondeterministic extension is provided.
Here's a sample session from utop:
> 2+2;;
- : int = 4
> 2+2;;
- : int = 3
> 2+2;;
- : int = 5
Observe here that there is a possibility of obtaining the expected result. And be honest, who doesn't what more non-determinism in their lives?
The provided Makefile contains instructions on how to build the
different useless extensions, but the impatient can invoke utop
like so:
- for useless programs:
make useless-utop - for non-terminating programs:
make diverge-utop - for non-deterministic programs:
make nondeterministic-utop