Re: [Caml-list] Running ocaml programs on Windows

["Jocelyn Sérot" <jocelyn.serot@wanadoo.fr>]

Le 11 sept. 11 à 16:42, Török Edwin a écrit :

> On 2011-09-11 17:31, Jocelyn Sérot wrote:
>> Thanks for your answer, Edwin.
>
> Did you mean to reply to me directly?
> If not please CC the ML too.

No. I did CC but from a mail account different from the one i used to  
subscribe to the list. Need to correct this.

Thanks for the pointers, anyway. Will have a look at mingw32/64 !

Best wishes

Jocelyn

>
>>
>>
>> Le 11 sept. 11 à 15:46, Török Edwin a écrit :
>>
>>> On 2011-09-11 16:35, jocelyn.serot@univ-bpclermont.fr wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> This may be a trivial question for people working on multiple  
>>>> platforms but,
>>>> having worked for a long time only on Unix-like platforms  
>>>> (including Mac OS X),
>>>> i'm a bit puzzled..
>>>>
>>>> What is the "best" (simplest both for the programmer and, most  
>>>> importantly, the
>>>> end user) way to develop a program in Ocaml in order to  
>>>> distribute it to people
>>>> having only MS Windows platforms ?
>>>>
>>>> Is it possible to cross-compile (from what i've read, no)  ?
>>>
>>> mingw32-ocaml can cross-compile, Debian and Fedora includes it.
>>
>> Ok. But since i'm running MacOS X, this means that i'll have to  
>> reboot under Debian/Fedora Linux  (or run it using VB).
>
> Sorry I don't have a Mac OS X to give more detailed instructions,  
> maybe someone else on this list can help.
>
> Try compiling OCaml with mingw32 on your Mac (see mingw.org and http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net/) 
> ,
> or find a pre-packaged cross-compiler for Mac (in the ports?).
>
> If you try to build a cross-compiler yourself you might need to  
> patch OCaml, AFAIK
> Debian has to patch upstream OCaml to make it build with mingw32  
> cross-compiler.
> Have a look at the mingw32-ocaml-3.12.0+debian3/debian/patches  
> directory:
> ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/m/mingw32-ocaml/mingw32-ocaml_3.12.0+debian3.tar.gz
>
>>
>>> You'll need to cross-compile all the OCaml (and native) libs you  
>>> use though (Fedora might provide pre-cross-compiled libs, not sure).
>>>
>>> Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an easy way to cross- 
>>> compile for Win64 in Debian
>>> (might be possible if an mingw-w64-ocaml package is created based  
>>> on mingw-w64), but 32-bit
>>> executables run just there too.
>>
>> Windows XP is 32b and Seven is 64b, aren't they ?
>
> There is a 64-bit version of XP (although less popular), and there  
> is a 32-bit version of Win7 too.
> The 64-bit version can run 32-bit apps just fine though.
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Do i have to install a ocaml distribution on a machine running  
>>>> windows, compile
>>>> my program with the installed tools (ocamlc/ocamlopt) and  
>>>> distribute the
>>>> resulting .exe ?
>>>
>>> That'd work of course, but you have the inconvenience of booting  
>>> windows everytime.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Aux question : In the Unix version, arguments are passed on the  
>>>> command line. I
>>>> understand that the same can be done under Windows using some  
>>>> kind of "shell"
>>>> (under Cygwin). But this may be disruptive to many Windows users  
>>>> who are used
>>>> to the "click to launch" approach. Is there some kind of tool  
>>>> that could
>>>> automatically wrap a command-line-based app into a click-to- 
>>>> launch app (with
>>>> some additionnal pop-ups to enter arguments for ex) ?
>>>
>>> Not that I know of, but one could be written using ocaml-win32 (or  
>>> lablgtk).
>>
>>> Is your app purely console based otherwise, or does its Unix  
>>> version have a GUI?
>>
>> Purely console-based for now, but writing a GUI should not be too  
>> difficult.
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Sorry if these questions sound trivial but despite a long  
>>>> experience in Ocaml
>>>> programming (>15 yrs), i've never been exposed to sw dev under  
>>>> windows (in fact
>>>> i deliberately avoid this terrain ;)
>>>>
>>>> Btw, for those interested, the program i'm trying to port is a  
>>>> compiler
>>>> generating VHDL code for FPGAs from high-level actor-dataflow  
>>>> descriptions
>>>> (more info here :
>>>> http://wwwlasmea.univ-bpclermont.fr/Personnel/Jocelyn.Serot/caph.html) 
>>>> .
>>>> For the moment, i'm distributing a bytecode but this requires the  
>>>> target
>>>> audience to have a ocaml distrib installed on their machine  
>>>> (which, from
>>>> experience, most of them view it as an hindrance).
>>>
>>> Does that mean that you don't use 3rdparty libs, or only use
>>> ones that can be compiled to pure bytecode (without native code)?
>>> If so cross-compiling with mingw32-ocaml should work fairly well.
>>
>> The app only uses libs from the ocaml distrib (unix.cm[x]a and  
>> dynlink.cm[x]a).
>>
>>>
>>> Another alternative would be to distribute ocamlrun.exe alongside  
>>> your program.
>>>
>>
>> Good idea. Can i do this (i mean, is it allowed by the licence  
>> conditions) ?
>
> IANAL, but I think you can distribute ocamlrun.exe under the terms  
> of the OCaml license:
> http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/license.en.html,
> and distribute the bytecode itself under your own license.
>
> Of course bytecode is slower than native, so getting cross- 
> compilation working somehow might still be worth it.
>
> Best regards,
> --Edwin