[Caml-list] Attn: Development Editor, Latest OCaml Weekly News

[Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org>]

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Hello

Here is the latest OCaml Weekly News, for the week of January 05 to 12,
2021.

Table of Contents
─────────────────

Marshal determinism and stability
Sedlex + Menhir parser for both tty and file parsing
First release of awa-ssh
Introducing Feather: A lightweight shell-scripting library for OCaml
postdoc researcher and research engineer positions for CHERI and Arm verification
First ocb (OCaml Badgen) release
Release of OCaml-Git v3.0 and co
Other OCaml News
Old CWN


Marshal determinism and stability
═════════════════════════════════

  Archive:
  <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/marshal-determinism-and-stability/7041/28>


Continuing this thread, David Allsopp said
──────────────────────────────────────────

  A couple of notes on `Marshal', which I don't think have been covered
  • Although the guarantee is only between identical versions of OCaml,
    the implementation actually goes to considerable lengths to maintain
    backwards compatibility (so a value _written_ by older OCaml remains
    _readable_ in newer OCaml). Our own testsuite, for example,
    indirectly [includes a test which unmarshals a 3.12.1 value]. I
    don't know exactly how far back the support goes.
  • As it happens, the change which affected Unison in 4.08 was the
    first breaking change to Marshal since either 4.00 or 4.01. The fact
    that it doesn't break often (and that the two code paths - at least
    at present - are small) meant I have suggested a few months back
    that we could in future add an additional flag in the style of
    `Compat_32' to allow values to be written in a way which should be
    readable on older versions of OCaml. Indeed, it's small enough that
    flags could be added for the changes in 4.08 ([PR#1683]) and in 4.11
    ([PR#8791]).
  • Neither point undermines using alternative formats either for
    network serialisation or persistent storage, for the many reasons
    discussed above!


[includes a test which unmarshals a 3.12.1 value]
<https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/blob/trunk/testsuite/tests/lib-hashtbl/compatibility.ml>

[PR#1683] <https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/pull/1683>

[PR#8791] <https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/pull/8791>


Sedlex + Menhir parser for both tty and file parsing
════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Archive:
  <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/sedlex-menhir-parser-for-both-tty-and-file-parsing/7055/1>


Bernard Sufrin announced
────────────────────────

  I am a great fan of Menhir, and have used it in several private
  language projects, using the ulexing scanner generator to provide
  Unicode-capable scanners.

  Alarmed by the obsolescence of ulexing, and needing a utf8-capable
  scanner in a hurry I decided to (teach myself to) use Sedlex. On the
  whole the experience was very satisfactory, and I found it
  straightforward to produce a variant of the sedlexing library which
  supports buffers with variable chunk sizes, thereby enabling efficient
  lexing on channels connected to files as well as immediately
  responsive lexing on channels connected to terminals.

  I also wanted to teach myself how to use the error-reporting,
  incremental, interfaces to Menhir-generated parsers. In the hope that
  it might be useful to others facing the same learning task, or the
  problem of adapting Sedlex for efficient interactive use, I have
  placed the example mock-S-Expression parser that resulted from this
  excursion in:

  [Git Repository: github.com/sufrin/InteractiveSedlexMenhirExample]


[Git Repository: github.com/sufrin/InteractiveSedlexMenhirExample]
<https://github.com/sufrin/InteractiveSedlexMenhirExample>


First release of awa-ssh
════════════════════════

  Archive:
  <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-first-release-of-awa-ssh/7057/1>


Hannes Mehnert announced
────────────────────────

  I'm happy to announce that `awa-ssh'
  (<https://github.com/mirage/awa-ssh>) has just been merged into
  opam-repository. It is a pure OCaml implementation of the ssh (secure
  shell, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH_(Secure_Shell)>) protocol.

  This is the initial release, please report issues you encounter.

  It was initially developed by Christiano Haesbaert in 2016, and
  revived mid-2019 by myself and in 2020 it was migrated to the MirageOS
  organization on GitHub for further development and maintenance.

  Both client and server code are present in the library (pure code in
  the main awa package), though the awa-lwt package implements only a
  server, and the awa-mirage package implements only a client. Tests and
  examples are in the test subdirectory.

  The MirageOS client has been successfully used to clone git
  repositories (on private servers, on GitHub, etc.). It supports apart
  from RSA keys also ED25519 keys (and key exchanges).


Introducing Feather: A lightweight shell-scripting library for OCaml
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Archive:
  <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/introducing-feather-a-lightweight-shell-scripting-library-for-ocaml/7059/1>


Charles announced
─────────────────

  I wrote a shell scripting library called [Feather]. I like idea of
  writing bash-like code quickly, later being able to intersperse OCaml
  to add more typeful components as needed. It's kind of like [Shexp]
  but without the monadic interface and with Async
  support. ([Feather_async])

  There's a tutorial and some examples in the link above but here's a
  quick taste:

  ┌────
  │ open Feather
  │ 
  │ let lines = find "." ~name:"*.ml"
  │   |. tr "/" "\n"
  │   |. map_lines ~f:String.capitalize
  │   |. sort
  │   |. process "uniq" [ "-c" ]
  │   |. process "sort" [ "-n" ]
  │   |. tail 4
  │   |> collect_lines
  │ in
  │ String.concat ~sep:", " lines |> print_endline
  └────
  Let me know if you have any feedback! And feel free to file bug
  reports [here]. Hope it ends up being useful, entertaining, or both!


[Feather] <https://hg.sr.ht/~etc/feather>

[Shexp] <https://github.com/janestreet/shexp/>

[Feather_async] <https://hg.sr.ht/~etc/feather_async>

[here] <https://todo.sr.ht/~etc/feather>


postdoc researcher and research engineer positions for CHERI and Arm verification
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Archive:
  <https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list/2021-01/msg00023.html>


Peter Sewell announced
──────────────────────

  We are looking for postdoctoral researchers and postdoctoral or
  postgraduate research engineers to help develop semantics and
  verification to improve the foundations and security of mainstream
  computer systems, for CHERI and Arm system software verification, at
  the University of Cambridge.  OCaml expertise to help develop
  verification tools will be especially welcome. Closing date 13 January
  2021 - see the advert <http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/28012/>.


First ocb (OCaml Badgen) release
════════════════════════════════

  Archive:
  <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-first-ocb-ocaml-badgen-release/7073/1>


zapashcanon announced
─────────────────────

  A few days ago, I released [ocb]. It's a library and a command-line
  tool to generate SVG badges.

  To get started quickly:

  ┌────
  │ ocb --label Hello --color green --style flat --labelcolor white --status Goodbye
  └────

  Will gives this result: [SVG example].

  My first use case was [To.ml] where I'm using [bisect_ppx] to generate
  and deploy a [coverage report]. I wanted to display the coverage
  percentage in the README and tried existing tools but wasn't fully
  satisfied as they didn't work or were failing randomly. Now, [I'm
  generating the badge directly in a GitHub action].

  The project was inspired by [badgen]. I still have to add support for
  icons and to improve the documentation but it's usable.


[ocb] <https://github.com/ocamlpro/ocb>

[SVG example]
<https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OCamlPro/ocb/master/example/cli.svg>

[To.ml] <https://github.com/ocaml-toml/To.ml>

[bisect_ppx] <https://github.com/aantron/bisect_ppx>

[coverage report] <https://ocaml-toml.github.io/To.ml/coverage/>

[I'm generating the badge directly in a GitHub action]
<https://github.com/ocaml-toml/To.ml/blob/6ac580848ad1d34ec3032da8672bbd9aca203cc4/.github/workflows/deploy.yml#L34>

[badgen] <https://github.com/badgen/badgen>


Release of OCaml-Git v3.0 and co
════════════════════════════════

  Archive:
  <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-release-of-ocaml-git-v3-0-and-co/7076/1>


Ulugbek Abdullaev announced
───────────────────────────

  We, the [`ocaml-git'] team, are happy to announce a new major release
  of `ocaml-git v3.0' and related libraries.


[`ocaml-git'] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git>

Release Notes
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌

OCaml-Git v3.0
┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄

  [*OCaml-Git*] is a library that implements `git' format and protocol
  implementation in pure OCaml. The library is used by libraries such as
  [`irmin'], a git-like distributed database, or [`pasteur'], a MirageOS
  unikernel-based snippet storage service.


[*OCaml-Git*] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git>

[`irmin'] <https://github.com/mirage/irmin>

[`pasteur'] <https://github.com/dinosaure/pasteur>

Changes
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

  The main goal behind this major release was to get better
  compatibility with various platforms, including
  [~MirageOS~](mirage.io), 32-bit platforms, and `js_of_ocaml'. In order
  to achieve that, we broke down `ocaml-git' into several components,
  which are represented as sub-libraries. We will describe some of those
  components later in this post.

  Along with better support for various platforms, `ocaml-git 3.0' also
  comes with SSH support for `fetch/push' and various bug fixes.

  The rest of the changes are mostly internal and pave a way for
  interesting features such as a full-blown `git' [garbage collector]
  and wire protocol v2 ([announcment] and [spec]).

  *References:*

  • Full [changes list]
  • [PR] that introduced the major rewrite of `ocaml-git'

  —

  In the new version of `ocaml-git', we try to have better separation of
  concerns by breaking some of the `ocaml-git' components into
  sub-libraries, which do not contain `git'-specific logic and can be
  reused for other purposes.


[garbage collector] <https://git-scm.com/docs/git-gc>

[announcment]
<https://opensource.googleblog.com/2018/05/introducing-git-protocol-version-2.html>

[spec]
<https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/technical/protocol-v2.txt>

[changes list]
<https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git/blob/master/CHANGES.md>

[PR] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git/pull/395>


Carton
┄┄┄┄┄┄

  Git uses [PACK files] to store old git objects such as commits and
  transfer objects over wire using git's wire protocols (`git-nss'
  library mentioned below implements [v1] of the protocol; [v2]
  implementation is in progress).

  [*Carton*] is a library to work with PACK files. The library does not
  contain git-specific code, so one can easily reuse the library and
  PACK format for non-git objects. One can see how `ocaml-git' uses
  `carton' for its purposes [here].

  *References:*

  • [PR] that introduces `carton'


[PACK files]
<https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/technical/pack-format.txt>

[v1]
<https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt>

[v2]
<https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/technical/protocol-v2.txt>

[*Carton*] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git/tree/master/src/carton>

[here] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git/tree/master/src/carton-git>

[PR] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git/issues/375>


Git-NSS (Not So Smart)
┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄

  When one wants to synchronize with a remote repository using git, they
  need to use `git fetch/push'.  Communication and
  synchronization/negotiation is defined by git *wire protocol*, which
  has two versions: older version 1 and newer leaner version 2. The
  protocols are defined for four wire transports: HTTP(S), SSH, and
  `git://' (TCP).

  [`Not-So-Smart'] library is a library that allows for such
  synchronization based on the git wire protocols but without
  git-specific code, meaning that files being fetched do not need to be
  git objects or that there is no assumptions on the "repository" that
  one is synchronizing with. So, as well as `carton', the library aims
  to be reusable for other purposes.

  This release features support for SSH using [awa-ssh] by @hannesm (see
  [the release]), support for [partial-clone] (of various `depth'), and
  memory consumption fixes for unikernels.

  *Note 1:* The library's name "Not so smart" is a play on the git's
  "smart" protocol, a part of wire protocol v1 over HTTP(S) transport.

  *Note 2:* only client side logic is implemented for wire
  protocols. The server-side is planned but not yet implemented. One can
  use `git' as the server for now.


[`Not-So-Smart']
<https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git/tree/master/src/not-so-smart>

[awa-ssh] <https://github.com/mirage/awa-ssh>

[the release]
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-first-release-of-awa-ssh/7057>

[partial-clone] <https://git-scm.com/docs/partial-clone>


Mimic
┄┄┄┄┄

  [*Mimic*] is a small reimplementation of [`conduit'], a library that
  helps to abstract over a transport protocol such as HTTP(S) or SSH. In
  other words, the code using `mimic' can deal not with different types
  that represent an HTTP or SSH connection, but just deal, e.g., read
  from or write to, with a `flow' value, which hides protocol-specific
  details under its hood.

  —

  There are several independent libraries that were upgraded along with
  `ocaml-git 3.0'.


[*Mimic*] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-git/tree/master/src/mimic>

[`conduit'] <https://github.com/mirage/ocaml-conduit>


Duff v0.3
┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄

  [*Duff*] is a library that implements git's [`libXdiff'] (`xdiff'
  algorithm) in OCaml. PACK files use a binary diff algorithm, `xdiff',
  to compress binary data. More on the project [page] and release
  [notes] for `ocaml-git 2.0'.


[*Duff*] <https://github.com/mirage/duff>

[`libXdiff'] <http://www.xmailserver.org/xdiff-lib.html>

[page] <https://github.com/mirage/duff>

[notes] <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-ocaml-git-2-0/2740>

Changes
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

  This release fixes the support for 32-bit architecture platforms.


Encore v0.7
┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄

  [*Encore*] is a library that can create an encoder/decoder based on
  the format given. It also ensures isomorphism by construction.


[*Encore*] <https://github.com/mirage/encore>

Changes
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

  Extensive changes to the API. See the project page.


Decompress v1.2.0
┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄

  [*Decompress*] is an OCaml implementation of certain decompression
  algorithms such as `Zlib', `Gzip', etc.


[*Decompress*] <https://github.com/mirage/decompress>

Changes
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

  `ocaml-git 3.0' uses new version of `decompress' with extensive
  performance improvements documented in *Tarides's* blog [API changes]
  and [performance improvements].

  We'd be happy to get your feedback or questions! :-)


[API changes]
<https://tarides.com/blog/2019-08-26-decompress-the-new-decompress-api>

[performance improvements]
<https://tarides.com/blog/2019-09-13-decompress-experiences-with-ocaml-optimization>


Other OCaml News
════════════════

From the ocamlcore planet blog
──────────────────────────────

  Here are links from many OCaml blogs aggregated at [OCaml Planet].

  • [How We Lost at The Delphi Oracle Challenge]
  • [Tarides sponsors the Oxbridge Women in Computer Science Conference
    2020]
  • [Coq 8.12.2 is out]
  • [First release of MetAcsl plugin]
  • [Announcing MirageOS 3.10]
  • [ ReScript 8.4]
  • [Coq 8.13+beta1 is out]


[OCaml Planet] <http://ocaml.org/community/planet/>

[How We Lost at The Delphi Oracle Challenge]
<https://seb.mondet.org/b/0010-delphi-challenge-post-vivum.html>

[Tarides sponsors the Oxbridge Women in Computer Science Conference
2020]
<https://tarides.com/blog/2020-12-14-tarides-sponsors-the-oxbridge-women-in-computer-science-conference-2020>

[Coq 8.12.2 is out] <https://coq.inria.fr/news/coq-8-12-2-is-out.html>

[First release of MetAcsl plugin]
<https://frama-c.com/fc-plugins/metacsl.html>

[Announcing MirageOS 3.10]
<https://mirage.io/blog/announcing-mirage-310-release>

[ ReScript 8.4]
<https://rescript-lang.org/blog/bucklescript-release-8-4>

[Coq 8.13+beta1 is out]
<https://coq.inria.fr/news/coq-8-13beta1-is-out.html>


Old CWN
═══════

  If you happen to miss a CWN, you can [send me a message] and I'll mail
  it to you, or go take a look at [the archive] or the [RSS feed of the
  archives].

  If you also wish to receive it every week by mail, you may subscribe
  [online].

  [Alan Schmitt]


[send me a message] <mailto:alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org>

[the archive] <http://alan.petitepomme.net/cwn/>

[RSS feed of the archives] <http://alan.petitepomme.net/cwn/cwn.rss>

[online] <http://lists.idyll.org/listinfo/caml-news-weekly/>

[Alan Schmitt] <http://alan.petitepomme.net/>


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