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

Alan Schmitt
2021-03-09T10:58:47Z

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Hello

Here is the latest OCaml Weekly News, for the week of March 02 to 09,
2021.

Table of Contents
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Working on an app to learn and execute OCaml on iPhone/iPad/Mac for beginners
ERic (Entity-Relation interactive calculator) version 0.3
OCaml Café: Tue, March 9 @ 7-9pm (CST)
Functional Programming User Study (Specifically in OCaml)
OCaml 4.12.0 released (with 4.11.2 too)
Other OCaml News
Old CWN

Working on an app to learn and execute OCaml on iPhone/iPad/Mac for beginners
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/working-on-an-app-to-learn-and-execute-ocaml-on-iphone-ipad-mac-for-beginners/7392/1>

Nathan Fallet announced
───────────────────────

I started to work on a new project recently: My goal is to provide an
iOS app for beginners to learn OCaml and practice on their device. I
think it is a good idea to get started easily.

Here are some screenshots of what I’ve done so far:

<https://aws1.discourse-cdn.com/standard11/uploads/ocaml/optimized/2X/e/ef66cf62d1ab605542033f09040cc964787cbb65_2_462x1000.jpeg>

I’m open to feedback and opinion about this project idea

Nathan Fallet then added
────────────────────────

I made it available for pre order on the App Store - I will keep
improving it with time, and I think it can be a great tool for
beginners

[https://apps.apple.com/app/ocaml-learn-code/id1547506826]

[https://apps.apple.com/app/ocaml-learn-code/id1547506826]
<https://apps.apple.com/app/ocaml-learn-code/id1547506826>

Yawar Amin replied
──────────────────

This is really cool. I just want to point out that your app is the
sole search result for 'OCaml' in the App Store. So that's a first
:-)

Incidentally, there is an 'OCaml Toplevel' app on the Android Play
Store:
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.vernoux.ocaml>

Your app looks more sophisticated though. Hopefully one day we have
something like [Swift Playgrounds] and people can start learning OCaml
interactively on their devices directly.

[Swift Playgrounds] <https://www.apple.com/ca/swift/playgrounds/>

ERic (Entity-Relation interactive calculator) version 0.3
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-eric-entity-relation-interactive-calculator-version-0-3/7408/1>

Damien Guichard announced
─────────────────────────

The [programming languages zoo] is a great resource for wanna-be
interpreter/compiler writers. The [ICFP 2000 programming contest] is
another great resource for wanna-be ray tracers. However until now
there has been no OCaml resource for wanna-be Knowledge Representation
tool-ers. This makes sound like KR tool is a more difficult area than
other projects. ERic v0.3 demonstrates the opposite as it's about 1200
lines size (lexer & hand-written parser included) and reads/writes a
[Conceptual Graph] Interchange Format (CGIF) notation.

• ERic v0.3 [Zip archive]
• ERic v0.3 [SVN repository]

[programming languages zoo] <http://plzoo.andrej.com/>

[ICFP 2000 programming contest]
<https://www.cs.cornell.edu/icfp/contest_results.htm>

[Conceptual Graph] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_graph>

[Zip archive]
<http://damien-guichard.developpez.com/downloads/ERic-0.3.zip>

[SVN repository] <http://subversion.developpez.com/projets/ERic/trunk/>

OCaml Café: Tue, March 9 @ 7-9pm (CST)
══════════════════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-cafe-tue-march-9-7-9pm-cst/7409/1>

Claude Jager-Rubinson announced
───────────────────────────────

Please join us next Tuesday at 7pm Central time for the second meeting
of OCaml Café. Zoom connection info is available at [Houston
Functional Programmers].

OCaml Café offers a friendly, low stakes opportunity to ask questions
about the OCaml language and ecosystem, work through programming
problems that you’re stuck on, and get feedback on your code.
Especially geared toward new and intermediate users, experienced OCaml
developers will be available to answer your questions.

Whether you’re still trying to make sense of currying or can spot
non-tail-recursive code from across the room, we hope that you’ll join
us with your questions about OCaml, or just to hang out with the OCaml
community.

[Houston Functional Programmers] <https://hfpug.org>

Functional Programming User Study (Specifically in OCaml)
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/functional-programming-user-study-specifically-in-ocaml/7410/1>

Ahan Malhotra announced
───────────────────────

We are doing user studies to help us understand how to help people
understand and navigate complex information about programming
documentation, *specifically in OCaml*. You will complete a series
tasks that help us understand working memory and how you navigate a
new interface. After examining a layout of the data (interface) for a
short, predetermined amount of time, you will be asked a set of
comprehension and/or qualitative questions to measure whether the
methods of presenting this information has any impact on your
performance.

*The study will take around 55 minutes, and you will be entered into a
lottery for a $150 Amazon gift card as compensation for your time.*

*A bit more about this study*

The user study will be done virtually on Zoom. You will be asked to
various tasks with the interface. The interface is deployed as a
public web application so you don’t have to install anything. This
research is governed by Harvard University's Committee on the Use of
Human Subjects.

*Eligibility*

You also don’t have to be an expert in anything to participate. You
just need to be fluent in English and over 18 years of age.

If you are interested, please fill out this survey to confirm your
eligibility, and we will follow up to schedule the study session:
<https://forms.gle/q6vkyEE2tSjjZoiSA>

If you have any questions, please email
ahanmalhotra@college.harvard.edu.

OCaml 4.12.0 released (with 4.11.2 too)
═══════════════════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-4-12-0-released-with-4-11-2-too/7358/13>

Continuing this thread from last week, Hannes Mehnert said
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Congratulations to the new release. For the curious who intend to
install a flambda version of 4.12 and are surprised that
`ocaml-variants.4.12.0+flambda' does not exist, from [this thread] the
opam layout has changed, and now the following works:

┌────
│ $ opam sw create <my-switch-name> --packages=ocaml-variants.4.12.0+options,ocaml-options-only-flambda
└────

There are more configuration options available, take a look at the
output of `opam search ocaml-option' for all options. (I've not been
involved with this development. I don't quite understand why there is
for each `Y' a `ocaml-option-Y' and a `ocaml-options-only-Y'.) I also
have not figured out whether there's a way to pass `-O3' in the just
created switch.

Maybe it is worth to embed such information in the very nicely styled
OCaml manual (considering that opam got quite some traction over the
years and is recommended for OCaml developers)?

[this thread]
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-4-12-0-first-release-candidate/7294>

Other OCaml News
════════════════

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

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

• [Release of Frama-Clang 0.0.10]
• [Qubes-lite with KVM and Wayland]
• [Florence and beyond: the future of Tezos storage]
• [The ReScript Association]

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

[Release of Frama-Clang 0.0.10]
<https://frama-c.com/fc-plugins/frama-clang.html>

[Qubes-lite with KVM and Wayland]
<https://roscidus.com/blog/blog/2021/03/07/qubes-lite-with-kvm-and-wayland/>

[Florence and beyond: the future of Tezos storage]
<https://tarides.com/blog/2021-03-04-florence-and-beyond-the-future-of-tezos-storage>

[The ReScript Association]
<https://rescript-lang.org/blog/rescript-association-rebranding>

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] <https://alan.petitepomme.net/cwn/>

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

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

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

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