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

Alan Schmitt
2022-05-03T09:11:49Z

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Hello

Here is the latest OCaml Weekly News, for the week of April 26 to May
03, 2022.

Table of Contents
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ATD now supports TypeScript
pp_loc 2.0
Windows-friendly OCaml 4.12 distribution - Diskuv OCaml 0.1.0
V3.ocaml.org: we are live!
Remaking an Old Game in OCaml
Old CWN

ATD now supports TypeScript
═══════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/atd-now-supports-typescript/9735/1>

Martin Jambon announced
───────────────────────

[ATD] is a language for specifying typed interfaces for communicating
across programming languages. It turns concrete type definitions
("schema") into code for each language. This code can read and write
JSON safely, relieving the user of worrying about the structure of the
JSON data.

Starting from version 2.5.0, ATD provides `atdts', a single executable
that turns a file `foo.atd' into `foo.ts'. See the [tutorial] for an
introduction. The programming languages targeted by ATD are now:

• Java
• OCaml
• Python + mypy
• ReScript (BuckleScript)
• Scala
• TypeScript

For an expert overview of the features that are currently supported,
check out the test data:
• [ATD input]
• [TypeScript output]

See also the [announcement for atdpy] that we made a month ago.

[ATD] <https://github.com/ahrefs/atd>

[tutorial] <https://atd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/atdts.html#tutorials>

[ATD input]
<https://github.com/ahrefs/atd/blob/master/atdts/test/atd-input/everything.atd>

[TypeScript output]
<https://github.com/ahrefs/atd/blob/master/atdts/test/ts-expected/everything.ts>

[announcement for atdpy]
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/atdpy-derive-safe-json-interfaces-for-python/9544>

pp_loc 2.0
══════════

Archive: <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-pp-loc-2-0/9741/1>

Armael announced
────────────────

Do you know how OCaml now displays errors by quoting back part of the
source, highlighting the faulty part? For instance, with a single-line
error location:
┌────
│ File "foo.ml", line 1, characters 12-14:
│ 1 | let foo x = yy + 1;;
│ ^^
└────
or a multi-line location:
┌────
│ File "bar.ml", lines 3-5, characters 10-10:
│ 3 | ..........function
│ 4 | | A -> 0
│ 5 | | B -> 1
└────

Do you have your own language/configuration file/… parser or
typechecker, that could benefit from nice, user-friendly error
messages?

The [pp_loc] library provides an easy-to-use implementation of the
same source-quoting mechanism that is used in the OCaml compiler. It
provides a single function `pp' which will display the relevant part
of the input given the location(s) of the error.

┌────
│ val pp :
│ ?max_lines:int ->
│ input:Input.t ->
│ Format.formatter ->
│ loc list ->
│ unit
└────
(As one can see from the signature, `pp' also supports displaying
several locations at once on the same source snippet, for
multi-location errors.)

The full [documentation is available online], and the library is
available on opam (`opam install pp_loc').

This new version, thanks to the contribution of @c-cube, makes the
`loc' type more flexible. It should now be easy to create source
locations that can be passed to `pp', however you represent them in
your parser (be it as (line,column) pairs, offsets, or any combination
of those…). For more details, see the [Pp_loc.Position] module.

I am completely open to more PRs or ideas for improving the library
further, and displaying source locations in even nicer ways!

Happy error-message printing!

[pp_loc] <https://github.com/Armael/pp_loc>

[documentation is available online]
<https://armael.github.io/pp_loc/pp_loc/Pp_loc/index.html>

[Pp_loc.Position]
<https://armael.github.io/pp_loc/pp_loc/Pp_loc/Position/index.html>

Windows-friendly OCaml 4.12 distribution - Diskuv OCaml 0.1.0
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-windows-friendly-ocaml-4-12-distribution-diskuv-ocaml-0-1-0/8358/18>

jbeckford announced
───────────────────

A single `setup-*.exe' executable is now all that is necessary to
install the Diskuv OCaml distribution on 64-bit Windows!

Today you can use a prerelease of v0.4.0 which is available at
<https://github.com/diskuv/dkml-installer-ocaml/releases/download/v0.4.0-prerel11/setup-diskuv-ocaml-windows_x86_64-0.4.0.exe>

The prerelease:
• is for *experienced Windows users only* because the prerelease is
not signed! You will have to fight with your browser, operating
system and anti-virus software to run the setup executable
• is *not reproducible*. Because many Diskuv packages have not yet
made it into Opam, the builds need several `opam pin' of unstable
branches.
• has not been incorporated into the
<https://diskuv.gitlab.io/diskuv-ocaml> documentation site. But the
[Beyond Basics] documentation should still be accurate.

Once those items above are addressed, a real (non-prerelease) 0.4.0
will be announced.

Existing Diskuv OCaml users: Your existing Opam switches
should be unaffected by the upgrade. But please make sure
you can recreate your Opam switches (ie. use a `.opam'
file) if something goes wrong.

Release notes, including details of the migration to the Apache 2.0
license, are at available at
[https://github.com/diskuv/dkml-installer-ocaml/releases/tag/v0.4.0-prerel11]

[Beyond Basics]
<https://diskuv.gitlab.io/diskuv-ocaml/doc/BeyondBasics.html#beyondbasics>

[https://github.com/diskuv/dkml-installer-ocaml/releases/tag/v0.4.0-prerel11]
<https://github.com/diskuv/dkml-installer-ocaml/releases/tag/v0.4.0-prerel11>

V3.ocaml.org: we are live!
══════════════════════════

Archive: <https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/v3-ocaml-org-we-are-live/9747/1>

Thibaut Mattio announced
────────────────────────

I am thrilled to announce that <https://ocaml.org/> now serves version
3 of the site! Here's an overview of the major features in this new
version:

• [Central OCaml package documentation], which contains the
documentation of every version of every OCaml packages.
• [OCaml job board], which lists job opportunities from the community.
• [A syndicated blog], which links to blog articles from the community
and offers original blog posts.
• [OCaml success stories] which explore how major OCaml industrial
users solved real-world challenges using OCaml.
• [Resources for learning OCaml], which aggregates resources and
tutorials to learn OCaml.
• [An interactive OCaml playground] to try OCaml code directly in the
browser.

Version 2 remains accessible at <https://v2.ocaml.org/>, and older
URLs to ocaml.org will be redirected to the v2 URL from now
on. Similarly, v3.ocaml.org URLs will continue to work.

Community feedback was instrumental and has been driving the direction
of the project since day one. For instance, having a centralized
package documentation site; or facilitating the hiring of OCaml
developers and finding OCaml jobs were major concerns that were
highlighted in the last [OCaml Survey]. They were what prompted us to
work on the documentation site and the job board respectively.

We've also listened to the community feedback we received along the
way, and in particular, here's an overview of everything we've been
doing to address the feedback we received after our last Discuss post:
<https://hackmd.io/IniIM_p3Qs2UB74cuKK7UQ>.

Given how critical your input is to drive the project, I am deeply
grateful to every one who took the time to share insights, suggestions
and bug reports. Some of the suggestions will need more work and
couldn't happen before launch, but we've listened to every one and
will keep working on improving OCaml.org to address pain points of the
community. Thank you, and keep the feedback coming!

We're also starting to see a lot of contributions from external
contributors. OCaml.org is open source, and contributions from anyone
are extremely welcome! Never hesitate to open a PR if you see
something you'd like to improve! You can read our [Contributing Guide]
to learn how to contribute.

[Central OCaml package documentation] <https://ocaml.org/packages>

[OCaml job board] <https://ocaml.org/opportunities>

[A syndicated blog] <https://ocaml.org/blog>

[OCaml success stories] <https://ocaml.org/success-stories>

[Resources for learning OCaml] <https://ocaml.org/learn>

[An interactive OCaml playground] <https://ocaml.org/play>

[OCaml Survey]
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-ocaml-user-survey-2020/6624>

[Contributing Guide]
<https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml.org/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md>

Ecosystem Contributions
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌

As the storefront of the OCaml ecosystem, we couldn't develop the next
version of OCaml.org without contributing back! As a result, we've
published several packages on opam that we're using for OCaml.org:

• [dream-accept]: Accept headers parsing for Dream
• [dream-encoding]: Encoding primitives for Dream.
• [hilite]: Generate HTML ready for syntax-highlighting with CSS by
parsing markdown documents.

Other packages that are yet to be released are:

• [code-mirror]: The code-mirror bindings
• [js_top_worker]: An OCaml toplevel designed to run in a web worker

We've also made contributions downstream:

• odoc: [Support for HTML fragments in odoc]
• river: [API changes and capability to fetch metadata from RSS post
links]

A huge thank you to the community for your constant effort in making
OCaml such a great language to work with! In particular, here are some
amazing community projects we are building upon: [Dream], [Brr] and
[Omd] and [many more]

[dream-accept] <https://github.com/tmattio/dream-accept>

[dream-encoding] <https://github.com/tmattio/dream-encoding>

[hilite] <https://github.com/patricoferris/hilite>

[code-mirror]
<https://github.com/patricoferris/jsoo-code-mirror/tree/static>

[js_top_worker] <https://github.com/jonludlam/js_top_worker>

[Support for HTML fragments in odoc]
<https://github.com/ocaml/odoc/pull/842>

[API changes and capability to fetch metadata from RSS post links]
<https://github.com/kayceesrk/river/pull/6>

[Dream] <https://aantron.github.io/dream/>

[Brr] <https://github.com/dbuenzli/brr>

[Omd] <https://github.com/ocaml/omd>

[many more] <https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml.org/blob/main/ocamlorg.opam>

What's next?
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌

Launching the website is the first step on our roadmap to improve
OCaml’s online presence.

As mentioned above, the immediate goal is to be ready for this OCaml
5.00.0 release. With this in mind, we want to focus on improving the
documentation and ensuring it includes good user pathways to learn
about Domains, Effects, and generally how to write concurrent programs
in OCaml.

In addition to the documentation, some of the other projects on our
roadmap are:

• Toplevels for all the packages that compile to JavaScript.
• Including OCaml Weekly News in the OCaml blog.
• A better search through packages, documentation, and packages'
documentation.

This is an exciting time! Stay tuned!

Call for maintainers
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌

There's a lot of ways to contribute if you'd like to help. Our
[contributing guide] should be a good entry point to learn what you
can do as a community contributor.

We're also looking for maintainers. As we're completing the first
milestone with the launch and will start working on new projects, now
is a great time to get involved!

If you'd like to help on the initiatives on our roadmap above (or
others!), feel free to reach out to me by email at
thibaut@tarides.com, or by replying to this post.

[contributing guide]
<https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml.org/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md>

Acknowledgements
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌

This project was a huge effort that started over a year ago, and the
result of dozens of [contributors]. We want to thank every one who
contributed to the site.

In particular, for the groundwork on rethinking the sitemap, user
flows, new content, design, and frontend and package docs, we thank
Ashish Agarwal, Kanishka Azimi, Richard Davison, Patrick Ferris, Gemma
Gordon, Isabella Leandersson, Thibaut Mattio and Anil Madhavapeddy.

For the work on the package site infrastructure and UI, we thank Jon
Ludlam, Jules Aguillon and Lucas Pluvinage. And for the work on the
designs and bringing them to life on the frontend, we thank Isabella
Leandersson and Asaad Mahmood.

For the work on the new content and reviewing the existing one, we
thank Christine Rose and Isabella Leandersson.

For the contributions on the content for Ahrefs, Jane Street and
LexiFi respectively, we thank Louis Roché, James Somers, Nicolás Ojeda
Bär.

We’d also like to thank the major funders who supported the work on
revamping the website: grants from the Tezos Foundation, Jane Street
and Tarides facilitated the bulk of the work. Thank you, and if anyone
else wishes to help support it on an ongoing basis then donations to
the OCaml Software Foundation and grants to the maintenance teams
mentioned above are always welcomed.

[contributors] <https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml.org/graphs/contributors>

Remaking an Old Game in OCaml
═════════════════════════════

Archive:
<https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/remaking-an-old-game-in-ocaml/9760/1>

Yotam Barnoy announced
──────────────────────

I've starting blogging about a [side-project of mine]. Hopefully I'll
find the time to write some further entries in the series, including
about reverse engineering a binary with IDA.

[side-project of mine]
<https://justabluddyblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/01/remaking-an-old-game-in-ocaml/>

Old CWN
═══════

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[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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Pour une évaluation indépendante, transparente et rigoureuse !
Je soutiens la Commission d'Évaluation de l'INRIA.