jon harrop

To create a tuple containing the numbers 1 and 2 in an ML (e.g. SML, OCaml),
you just do:
(1, 2)


The "arity" of a tuple cannot be extended in an ML, by definition. You have
two options, if you know at compile time how many times the tuple will be
extended then you can nest tuples:

(1, 2)
((1, 2), 3)
(((1, 2), 3), 4)

and so forth. If you do not know, then you must use a list. If the data in
your tuples is of different types then you will need to unify the types in
a single variant type and then have a list with all elements of that variant type.

You will find ML much more concise than Java for this kind of work. ML is
also likely to be much faster.


Yes, if naming the fields is productive, then records are a good
alternative.

Overall, ML variants are all excellent at handling complicated data
structures. As you are likely to be doing this kind of work, you will
almost certainly be much more productive in an ML than in C++/Java/C#.

--
Dr Jon D Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy
http://www.ffconsultancy.com