OCaml Weekly News

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Here is the latest OCaml Weekly News, for the week of June 04 to 11, 2024.

Providing Opam system dependancies with Nix

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/providing-opam-system= -dependancies-with-nix/14745/1

Ryan announced

I've opened a PR wi= th input from @dra27 and @avsm adding support for Nix depexts (system depen= dencies) to Opam.

Opam supports system dependencies for other platforms by invoking the syste= m package manager, e.g. apt-get install .... However Nix is a = bit different, as in general installing a package to your system doesn't cr= eate the development environment required to use it; it will only add execu= tables to your $PATH. To find, for example, objects files, out= side of a Nix derivation you can use nix-shell and it's descen= dant nix develop. E.g.:

$ nix-shell -p gmp
$ echo $NIX_LDFLAGS
-rpath /nix/store/20g5iw2r512gnfrdr4imp2y940v3vlif-shell/lib  -L/nix/store/=
rx6nkd40819acppajq29g1hxa4d9r35f-gmp-with-cxx-6.3.0/lib -L/nix/store/rx6nkd=
40819acppajq29g1hxa4d9r35f-gmp-with-cxx-6.3.0/lib

We support Nix depexts with Opam in a similar way. A Nix derivation is buil= d with the desired packages as inputs, and the resulting environment is out= put as a file in the Opam switch in a format that Opam can parse. This nix.env file is a symlink into the Nix store, so acts as a garbage= collection root – packages won't be removed from the store while th= is file exists. Opam outputs these environment variables on an invocation o= f opam env.

This fixes issues such as https://discuss.ocaml.org/= t/opam-and-nixos-is-there-an-alternative-to-nix-shell/13726.

While the primary use case is on NixOS, this depext mechanism could be used= on other platforms to provide a consistent experience including other Linu= x distributions, BSDs, (and possibly even windows in the future).

Nixpkgs typically only packages one version of a package at a time, but I'm= working on versioned depexts with previous version of Nixpkgs as outlined = here.

I'm keen to get people's opinions and perspective on this!

ppx_deriving.6.0.2 and ppx_deriving_yojson.3.8.0

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-ppx-deri= ving-6-0-2-and-ppx-deriving-yojson-3-8-0/14750/1

Nathan Rebours announced

I am happy to announce the release of ppx_deriving.6.0.2 and ppx_deriving_y= ojson.3.8.0, the first release of those packages in years!

The main feature here is the port of ppx_deriving's standard derivers ([@@deriving sho= w, make, ord, eq, ...]) and ppx_deriving_yojson to ppxlib's Deriving api. There are no changes to how you'd use those derivers but many benefits:

Better performances and better integration with other ppx-es as the cod= e is now generated as part of ppxlib's driver main AST rewriting phase rath= er than in a separate, dedicated phase.
They can now be used with [@@deriving_inline]
None of them will break the location invariant required by merlin anymo= re, fixing a long lasting bug and providing a much better user experience.<= /li>

You can find the full release notes for ppx_deriving here and for ppx_de= riving_yojson here.

I'd like to thank @sim642 for all their work on the ppxlib ports and their = patience, and all our other contributors.

I'd also like to thank the OCaml Software= Foundation who has been funding my work on those releases.

Effective ML Through Merlin's Destruct Command

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/blog-effective= -ml-through-merlins-destruct-command/14751/1

Xavier Van de Woestyne announced

I'm very pleased to present you an article with a = collection of small illustrations and examples of how to use the dest= ruct command to generate patterns in the presence of pattern matches= .=20

The command has been present in Merlin for several years (and accessible via OCaml-LSP) but, as the various changelogs relating = to Merlin mention, we have spent some time polishing it and adapting it to = the evolutions of OCaml, making it more stable (essentially in the presence= of punning) and taking into account the changes made to the representation= of functions (and their parameters).

The aim of the article is to show how the destruct command wor= ks in a number of very concrete cases, and ends with an example (a little a= rtificial for the purposes of the article and for teaching purposes) which = shows how to use destruct interactively.

Effective ML Through Merlin's Destruct Command: original article, written in English, on the Tarides blog.

Effective= ML, au travers de la commande 'destruct': A French-language interpreta= tion of the article, published on my blog.

Can't wait to hear your feedback! Happy reading!

OCaml Windows Working Group

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-windows-working-group/14755/1

Sudha Parimala announced

I=E2=80=99m happy to share that we=E2=80=99re starting a working group for = OCaml Windows. This is part of a larger effort, First-class Wi= ndows, to enhance the OCaml experience on Windows. Through this effort,= we aim to coordinate our collective knowledge to identify high-priority it= ems for First-class Windows.

We've started a mailing list to exchange ideas and would greatly appreciate= inputs. You can sign up at – https://groups.google.com/u/0/g/ocaml-windows-wg

While the mailing list is intended to be the primary means of communication= , we plan to do a sync meeting once a month, to start with. We plan to do a= kick-off meeting early next week. Please fill in this poll if you're inter= ested to join: https://= strawpoll.com/polls/PbZqbmkNeyN.

Happy camling :camel:

Flambda2 Ep. 2: Loopifying Tail-Recursive Functions, by OCamlP= ro

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/= t/blog-flambda2-ep-2-loopifying-tail-recursive-functions-by-ocamlpro/14758/= 1

OCamlPro announced

Greetings Cameleers,

We would like to share with you our latest Flambda2 Snippet: Flambda2 = Ep. 2: Loopifying Tail-Recursive Functions!

Indeed, today's topic is what is called Loopify, one of the ma= ny optimisation algorithms found in the Flambda2 optimising co= mpiler project.

We believe Loopify is a nicely representative piece of softwar= e for our readers to grasp at the general design and philosophy for all opt= imisations available in Flambda2! Hopefully, you will do too!

Be sure to check out the Flambda2 Ep.0 article to get all t= he context for the project itself and the series of blog posts!

In any case, we await your feedback below, and hope that you will enjoy rea= ding this post, and all ensuing ones!

Kind regards, The OCamlPro Team

OCaml Platform Newsletter: March-May 2024

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-platform-newslette= r-march-may-2024/14765/1

Thibaut Mattio announced

Welcome to the eleventh edition of the OCaml Platform newsletter!

In this March-May 2024 edition, we are excited to bring you the latest on t= he OCaml Platform, continuing our tradition of highlighting recent developm= ents as seen in previous editions. To understand the direction we're headed, especia= lly regarding development workflows and user experience improvements, check= out our roadmap.

Highlights:

Explorations on Dune package management have reached a Minimal-Viable-P= roduct (MVP) stage: a version of Dune that can build non-trivial projects l= ike OCaml.org and Bonsai. With a working MVP, = the team is shifting their focus to putting Dune package management in the = hands of the community. To that end, we have started the Dune Developer Pre= view Program, where we will test Dune package management with users and ref= ine the user experience in preparation for a final release.
The opam team released a second beta of opam 2.2, and with it, opened the <= a href=3D"https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/pull/25861">final PR= to add support for Windows OCaml to the opam-repository. Once the PR is me= rged, opam 2.2 will be usable with the upstream opam-repository on Windows,= paving the way for a third beta very soon, and a Release Candidate next.
The odoc team has finalized the initial design for Odoc 3.0 and opened = several RFCs to g= ather community input. We've implemented a new Odoc driver that follows the Odoc 3.0 design an= d have already started prototyping key parts of the design.
Merlin's project-wide references query is getting very close to release= . The necessary compi= ler PR has been merged and included in OCaml 5.2, and the Dune rules PR has been merged a= nd included in Dune 3.16. The next steps are to merge the PR in Merlin itself and the small = patch in OCaml LSP.
The set of standard derivers shipped with ppx_deriving.std= (i.e. [@@deriving show, make, ord, eq, ...]) as well as ppx_deriving_yojson are now directly written against Ppxlib's API. = That impacts developers in two ways. First, it allows you to enjoy reliable= editor features in projects with those derivers (Ppxlib preserves Merlin's= location invariants). Second, you can avoid a hard dependency on those der= ivers by using Ppxlib's deriving_inline feature on them. Thank= s a lot to @sim642 for all your work and very kind patience, @NathanReb for= reviewing and release managing, and everyone else involved!

Releases:

[Dune] Exploring Package Management in Dune (<= a href=3D"https://ocaml.org/docs/platform-roadmap#w4-build-a-project">W4)

Contributed by: @rgrinberg (Tarides), @Leonidas-from-XIV (Tarides), = @gridbugs (Tarides), @Alizter

Why: Unify OCaml tooling under a single command line for all develop= ment workflows. This addresses one of the most important pain points reported by the community.

What: Prototyping the integration of package management into Dune us= ing opam as a library. We're introducing a dune pkg lock comma= nd to generate a lock file and enhancing dune build to handle = dependencies in the lock file. More details in the Dune RFC.

Summary:=20

Over the past three months, significant progress has been made in adding Du= ne's support for package management. We are thrilled to report that our pro= totypes have reached a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) stage: an experimental = version of Dune package management that can be used to build non-trivial pr= ojects, including OCaml.org and Bonsai, which we are using in our tests.

There is still a long way to go, but with this milestone reached, we are no= w shifting our focus from prototyping to putting the feature in the hands o= f the community. We are moving to testing the new Dune feature with users, = and in particular, now that we have a good understanding of the technical b= lockers and their workarounds, we will be focusing on validating and refini= ng the developer experience (DX) of Dune package management in preparation = for a first release.

To that end, the Dune team has started a Dune Developer Preview Program. We= 're currently testing the Developer Preview of package management with sele= cted beta testers, and once the biggest issues have been addressed, we'll b= e opening it to the broader community.

Activities:

Continued addressing remaining issues with ocamlfind and zarith.
- Added repro PRs for ocamlfind and zarith issues =E2=80=93 ocaml/dune#10233, ocaml/dune#10235.
- Iterated on a solution for relocatable ocamlfind =E2=80=93 ocaml/ocamlfind#72.
- Removed .mml references in ocamlfind =E2=80=93 ocaml/ocamlfind#75.
- Set OCAMLFIND_DESTDIR for install actions to fix ocamlfind installation= issues =E2=80=93 ocam= l/dune#10267.
Added a test reproducing error when locking when a pin stanza contains = a relative path outside the workspace =E2=80=93 ocaml/dune#10255.
Fixed package creation issues with directories on different filesystems= =E2=80=93 ocaml/dune#= 10214.
Opened PRs to address user errors, improve error messages, and enhance = environment handling for pkg rules =E2=80=93 ocaml/dune#10385, ocaml/ocamlbuild#327, ocaml/dune#10403, ocaml/dune#10407, ocaml/dune#10455.
Addressed several issues related to withenv actions, dune pkg lock, and unexpected behavior with variable updates =E2=80= =93 ocaml/dune#10404= , ocaml/dune#104= 08, ocaml/dune#1= 0417, ocaml/dune= #10440, ocaml/opa= m#5925, ocaml/opa= m#5926.
Approved relocatable releases of ocamlfind and ocamlbuild =E2=80=93 ocaml-dune/opam= -overlays#1, ocaml-dune/opam-overlays#2.
Cleaned up and sought feedback on the relocatable ocamlfind PR =E2=80= =93 ocaml/ocamlfind#= 72.
To work around the fact that the compiler is not relocatable (yet!), we= worked on adding support to Dune to manage compiler and developer tools, a= n experimental feature we call Dune Toolchain. =E2=80=93 ocaml/dune#10470, ocaml/dune#10474, ocaml/dune#10475, ocaml/dune#10476, ocaml/dune#10477, ocaml/dune#10478.
Addressed various issues related to pkg lock, environment updates, and = package management =E2=80=93 ocaml/dune#10512, ocaml/dune#10499, ocaml/dune#10498, ocaml/dune#10531, ocaml/dune#10521, ocaml/dune#10539, ocaml/dune#10540, ocaml/dune#10543, ocaml/dune#10544, ocaml/dune#10545, ocaml/dune#10538, ocaml/dune#10542, ocaml/dune#10595, ocaml/dune#10596, ocaml/dune#10592, ocaml/dune#10593.
Merged PRs to use unpack code for rsync URLs and disable hg/darcs fetch= code =E2=80=93 ocaml/= dune#10556, ocaml/= dune#10561.

[opam] Native Support for Windows in opam 2.2 = (W5)

Contributed by: @rjbou (OCamlPro), @kit-ty-kate (Ahrefs), @dra27 (Ta= rides), @AltGr (OCamlPro)

Why: Enhance OCaml's viability on Windows by integrating native opam= and opam-repository support, fostering a larger community, an= d more Windows-friendly packages.

What: Releasing opam 2.2 with native Windows support, making the off= icial opam-repository usable on Windows platforms.

Summary:

The opam team is getting closer to a final release of opam 2.2 with support= for Windows. In the past months, we have released a second beta of opam 2.= 2, addressing a number of issues reported by users on previous releases, in= cluding Windows issues.

Excitingly, we also opened the final PR adding support for Windows OCaml to opam-r= epository. With the PR merged, the opam team is expecting to be able to mov= e to a Release Candidate in June.

Stay tuned for more exciting news and releases in the coming weeks and mont= hs!

Activities:

Packaging the compiler in opam-repository
- We cleared WIP items in the windows-initial branch, creating the = mingw-w64-shims re= pository for the C stub program and generation script needed for the mingw-= w64-shims opam package.
- Various fixes for msvs-detect were upstreamed and the opam packaging PR= finalized =E2=80=93 metastack/msvs-tools#17, metastack/msvs-tools#18.
- Initial upstreaming PRs were opened for Visual Studio configuration =E2= =80=93 ocam= l/opam-repository#25440, reorganization of conf-zstd =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-reposit= ory#25441, and native Windows depexts =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-repository#25442.
- Fixed mccs package dependencies upstream =E2=80=93 ocaml-opam/ocaml-mccs#52, ocaml/opam-repo= sitory#25482.
- Upstreamed support for source-packaging of flexdll =E2=80=93 ocaml/flexdll#135.
- Worked on packaging scripts for winpthreads for OCaml 5.3.0 =E2=80=93 <= a href=3D"https://github.com/ocaml/winpthreads/pull/1">ocaml/winpthreads#1<= /a>.
- Further upstreaming PRs were opened for mingw-w64-shims =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-repos= itory#25454, and flexdll and winpthreads sources packages =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-rep= ository#25512.
- Reviewed and tested changes related to the 4.14.2 release for the sunse= t branch of opam-repository-mingw =E2=80=93 ocaml-opam/opam-repository-mingw#2= 0, ocaml-opam/opam-repository-mingw#21.
- Updated the windows-initial branch to support MSYS2, including cr= eating msys2-opam to co= mplement mingw-w64-shi= ms.
- Upstreamed issues with the ocaml-variants.5.1.1+effect-syntax package = =E2=80=93 o= caml/opam-repository#25645.
- Investigated BER MetaOCaml, determining that 4.14.1+BER does not work o= n Windows and disabled it in opam-repository =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-repository#25648= .
- Worked further on the draft PR, addressing the issue of invalid maintai= ner email addresses for packages =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-repository#25826.
- Opened the main PR for Windows compiler support =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-repository#25= 861, with a parallel draft PR for updating the compiler's opam file =E2= =80=93 ocaml/ocaml#13= 160.
- Backported ocaml/= ocaml#13100 to 5.1.x ocaml-variants =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam-repository#25828, awa= iting opam 2.2.0~beta3 release.
Release opam 2.2
- Completed work on various patches and PRs, including fixes for accented= characters in Dune =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#5861, ocaml/opam#5871, janestreet/spawn#58, ocaml/opam#5862.
- Worked on performance improvements for Windows, including adding job st= atuses and a proof-of-concept for a spinner on slow-running build jobs =E2= =80=93 ocaml/opam#5883<= /a>.
- Finalizing fix on Cygwin PATH handling for opam 2.2.0 beta2 =E2=80=93 <= a href=3D"https://github.com/ocaml/opam/pull/5832">ocaml/opam#5832.
- Mark the internal cygwin installation as recommended - ocaml/opam#5903
- Hijack the %{?val_if_true:val_if_false}% syntax to support= extending the variables of packages with + in their name - ocaml/opam#5840
- Fixed issues with downloading URLs with invalid characters and opam's i= nternal state =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#5921, o= caml/opam#5922.
- Assembled test harnesses for opam init and addressed issue= s with opam lint warnings =E2=80=93 dra27/opam-testing, ocaml/opam#5927, ocaml/opam#5928.
- Fixed reversal of environment updates and minor issues in GitHub Action= s =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#= 5935, ocaml/opam#59= 38.
- Rele= ased opam 2.2~beta2.
- Fixed issues related to environment variable handling =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#5935.
- Finalized fixes for Git for Windows menu =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#5963.
- Minor fixes to --cygwin-extra-packages =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#5964.
- Refactored opam init for a more logical experience =E2=80= =93 ocaml/opam#5963= .
- Updated lint warning 41 PR =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#5927.
- Responded to issues found by testers of Windows compiler packages =E2= =80=93 ocaml/flexdl= l#138, ocaml/fl= exdll#139.
- Completely reworked opam init to detect Cygwin and MSYS2 i= nstallations.
- Fixed issues with the ? operator and MSYS2's native curl i= mplementation =E2=80=93 ocaml/opam#5983, o= caml/opam#5984.

[=E2=80=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Odoc 3.0= : Unify OCaml.org and Local Package Documentation (W25)

Contributed by: @jonludlam (Tarides), @julow (Tarides), @panglesd (T= arides), Luke Maurer (Jane Street)

Why: Improving local documentation generation workflow will help pac= kage authors write better documentation for their packages, and consolidati= ng the different odoc documentation generators will help make = continuous improvements to odoc available to a larger audience.

What: We will create conventions that drivers must follow to ensure = that their output will be functional. Once established, we will update the = Dune rules to follow these rules, access new odoc features (e.= g., source rendering), and provide similar functionalities to docs.ocaml.or= g (a navigational sidebar, for instance). This will effectively make Dune u= sable to generate OCaml.org package documentation.

Summary:

The Odoc team has made significant progress on the upcoming Odoc 3.0. We he= ld productive in-person meetings in Paris to discuss crucial design aspects= such as the CLI, source code rendering, and references. These discussions = led to the publications of RFCs for the various components of the design sp= ecification.

We also started implementing a new Odoc driver that adheres to the new desi= gn for testing purposes, and began prototyping several of the new features.

While discussions on the RFCs and specific features are still ongoing, we a= re very excited to have a solid set of design specifications under communit= y review and to have begun implementing key parts of the new design.

Activities:

Investigated package name/library name mismatches and module name clash= es =E2=80=93 jonludlam/2997e905a468bfa0e625bf98b24868e5, jonlud= lam/0a5f1391ccbb2d3040318b154da8593a.
Continued work on odoc 3.0 design, including meetings and discussions, = culminating in the publication of the RFC =E2=80=93 ocaml/odoc/discussions/1097.
Worked on the navigation PR, added functionalities, fixed bugs, and com= pleted the rebase =E2=80=93 ocaml/odoc#1088.
Met in Paris to discuss the odoc 3.0 design, covering topics such as CL= I, rendering source code, and references.
Opened a PR with basic support for markdown in standalone pages =E2=80= =93 ocaml/odoc#1110= .
Published the current proposal for assets as a discussion =E2=80=93 ocaml/odoc#1113= .
Continued discussions on Markdown rendering and asset references - ocaml/odoc#1110.
Implemented a new driver for testing the odoc 3.0 implementation =E2=80= =93 ocaml/odoc#1121= , ocaml/odoc#1128.<= /li>
Worked on implementing the –parent-id flag part of the Odoc 3.0 = spec =E2=80=93 ocaml/od= oc#1126.
Worked on implementing the -L and -P flags ocaml/odoc#1132

[Merlin] Support for Project-Wide References i= n Merlin (W19)

Contributed by: @vds (Tarides), @Ekdohibs (OCamlPro), @Octachron (I= NRIA), @gasche (INRIA), @emillon (Tarides), @rgrinberg (Jane Street), @Julo= w (Tarides)

Why: Enhance code navigation and refactoring for developers by provi= ding project-wide reference editor features, aligning OCaml with the editor= experience found in other languages.

What: Introducing ocamlmerlin server occurrences and LS= P textDocument/references support, extending compiler's Shapes= for global occurrences and integrating these features in Dune, Merlin, and= OCaml LSP.

Summary:

The past few months have seen fantastic progress on releasing Merlin's proj= ect-wide reference query: The compiler PR got merged and included in the no= w released OCaml 5.2; The Dune rules PR got merged, and with it significant= performance improvements have been made on the indexing tool. The final PR in Merlin is op= en and under review. That PR as well as the small LSP patch to support the = feature are about to be merged.

The PR on Merlin also adds support for the feature in the Merlin server plu= g-in for Emacs. Support for the Merlin server plug-in for Vim has been adde= d separately. All editor plug-ins based on LSP will support the new feature= automatically.

Activities:

We followed up on our compiler PR to improve performance for shape alia= ses weak reduction. It got merged, and made it into OCaml 5.2.0. =E2=80=93 = ocaml/ocaml#13001=
We improved the Dune rules that drive the indexer: Simplified the rules= , added benchmarks, discussed and improved performance. The PR got merged, = and made it into Dune 3.16. - ocaml/dune#10422
We polished the indexer ocaml-index: Profiled it and impro= ved its speed by a factor ~2, and improved its CLI.
We added a :MerlinOccurrencesProjectWide command to the Vi= m plug-in based on the Merlin server - ocaml/merlin#1767

OCaml.org Newsletter: May 2024

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-org-newsletter-may-2024/14767= /1

Sabine Schmaltz announced

Welcome to the May 2024 edition of the OCaml.org newsletter! This update ha= s been compiled by the OCaml.org team. You can find previous updates on Discuss.

Our goal is to make OCaml.org the best resource for anyone who wants to get= started and be productive in OCaml. The OCaml.org newsletter provides an u= pdate on our progress towards that goal and an overview of the changes we a= re working on.

We couldn't do it without all the amazing people who help us review, revise= , and create better OCaml documentation and work on issues. Your participat= ion enables us to so much more than we could just by ourselves. Thank you!

This newsletter covers:

Recipes for the OCaml Cookbook: Help us make the OCaml Cookbook = really useful by contributing and reviewing recipes for common tasks!
Community & Marketing Pages Rework: We have UI designs for t= he reworked and new pages of the community section and are starting to impl= ement these. We made progress towards showing videos from the community on = the OCaml Planet.
General Improvements: As usual, we also worked on general mainte= nance and improvements, so we're highlighting some of the work that happene= d below.

Open Issues for Contributors

You can find open issues for co= ntributors here!

Here are some (as of writing this newsletter) open issues:

Recipes for the OCaml Cookbook

The OCaml Cookbook is a place where OCaml developers share how to solve com= mon tasks using packages from the ecosystem.

A recipe is a code sample and explanations on how to perform a task using a= combination of open source libraries.

The Cookbook is live at ocaml.org/co= okbook, but there are not a lot of recipes published yet.

When the cookbook was merged, all pull requests to the cookbook branch were= automatically closed. We recreated these pull requests and they are ready = for review.

Here's how you can help:

Review open pull requests for cookbook recipes!
Contribute new recipes and tasks for the cookbook!

Relevant PRs and Activities:

PR: Add a checklist for OCaml Cookbook recipe review ocaml/ocaml.org#2419 by @sabine
PR: Cookbook filesystem ocaml/ocaml.org#2399
PR: Cookbook networking ocaml/ocaml.org#2400
PR: Cookbook xml ocaml/ocaml.org#2401
PR: cookbook httpclient ocaml/ocaml.org#2402
PR: cookbook uri ocaml/ocaml.org#2403
PR: Cookbook regexp2 ocaml/ocaml.org#2404
PR: Cookbook unzip ocaml/ocaml.org#2405
PR: Cookbook linalg ocaml/ocaml.org#2406
PR: Cookbook getenv ocaml/ocaml.org#2407
PR: Cookbook shell ocaml/ocaml.org#2408
PR: Cookbook geodesic ocaml/ocaml.org#2409
PR: Add cookbooks for JSON serialisation and deserialisation ocaml/ocaml.org#2415 by = @gpopides
PR: Cookbook Encode and Decode Bytestrings from Hex-Strings ocaml/ocaml.org#2445 by <= a href=3D"https://github.com/ggsmith842">@ggsmith842

Community & Marketing Pages Rework

This month, we made some progress towards adding videos from the OCaml comm= unity (e.g., from YouTube and watch.ocaml.org) to the OCaml Planet.

Since the size of the OCaml Planet RSS feed grew so large that automation t= ools (dlvr.it) could no longer process it, we reduced the time= frame for posts to show up in the RSS feed to the last 90 days.

Contributor @ishar19 opened a pu= ll request to add an RSS feed for the Community/Events page. This will allo= w posting new events to various social media automatically and allow you to= subscribe to the Events RSS feed with a RSS reader of your choice.

We have UI designs for the reworked and new pages of the = community section and we are opening small issues for contributors to h= elp. :orange_heart:=20

Relevant PRs and Activities:

The OCaml Planet
- PR: Community videos scraping and list page ocaml/ocaml.org#2441 by @cuihtlauac
- PR: Scrape watch.ocaml.org as an RSS feed ocaml/ocaml.org#2428 by @cuihtlauac
- PR: No longer feature posts on the OCaml Planet ocaml/ocaml.org#2430 by @cuihtlauac
- PR: Set the cutoff date for the OCaml Planet RSS feed to 90 days ocaml/ocaml.org#2416= by @sabine
- PR: Filter OCaml Planet Blog posts for "OCaml" keyword ocaml/ocaml.org#2443 by @cuihtlauac
- PR: add redirect for /blog to /ocaml-planet ocaml/ocaml.org#2450 by @sabine
- PR: Dedupe RSS feed creation logic ocaml/ocaml.org#2461 by @cuihtlauac
Events page
- PR: Feat/events rss feed ocaml/ocaml.org#2437 by @ishar19

Outreachy Internship on Interactive Exercises

On May 27, Divyanka Chaudh= ari started working with the team, as an Outreachy intern. She's implem= enting support for running the exercises as a stand-alone project, either i= n GitHub Codespace, in repl.it, using Jupyter or LearnOcaml.

Relevant PRs and Activities:

PR: Fix 007 answer folder not running test cases ocaml/ocaml.org#2458 by @divyankachaudhari

## General Improvements and Data Additions

Notable Changes:

We restructured the main navigation to have a "Tools" section that hold= s the OCaml Platform page and the OCaml compiler releases page. This should= make the OCaml Platform page easier to find.
The Changelog can now be found under "News", from the main navigation. = You can also find the OCaml Planet and the Newsletters in this new section.=
The OCaml Language Manual is now served from OCaml.org, instead of v2.o= caml.org.
We added some more links to learning resources to the Resources page at= https://ocaml.org/resources.
Some documentation updates on "Is OCaml Web Yet?", "Is OCaml GUI Yet?",= the ThreadSanitizer tutorial, and the "Functors" tutorial.

Relevant PRs and Activities:

Features
- PR: Introduce a tools section for platform page, releases page, and a n= ews section for changelog, OCaml Planet and Newsletters ocaml/ocaml.org#2410 by @sabine
Migration of the Language Manual from v2.ocaml.org to OCaml.org
- PR: fix: language manual redirect, remove unnecessary append of index.h= tml ocaml/ocaml.or= g#2470 by @sabine
- PR: Fix: redirect to downloadable manual files ocaml/ocaml.org#2439 by @sabine
- PR: Simplify and extend releases redirects from legacy v2.ocaml.= org URLs ocaml/oca= ml.org#2448 by @cuihtlauac
- PR: Fix #2465 = ocaml/ocaml.org#2468 by @cui= htlauac
- PR: Fix more redirect ocaml/ocaml.org#2471 by @cuihtlauac
Data
- PR: (data) add some learning resources ocaml/ocaml.org#2474 by @sabine
- PR: Add University of Bologna as academic institution ocaml/ocaml.org#2394 by @boozec
- PR: (data) Update ocaml.org community meeting zoom link ocaml/ocaml.org#2413 by @sabine
- PR: (data) jobs: add a XenServer position again ocaml/ocaml.org#2414 by @edwintorok
- PR: (data) add ocaml.org newsletter April 2024 ocaml/ocaml.org#2417 by @sabine
- PR: OCaml 5.2.0 announce and release page ocaml/ocaml.org#2421 by @Octachron
- PR: Update OCamlPro's logo ocaml/ocaml.org#2436 by @hra687261
- PR: Changelog entry for OCaml 5.2.0~rc1 ocaml/ocaml.org#2391 by @Octachron
- PR: changelog: add Dune 3.15.1 and 3.15.2 ocaml/ocaml.org#2389 by @emillon
- PR: Add changelog entry for Merlin 5.0 ocaml/ocaml.org#2472 by @pitag-ha
Bugfixes
- PR: fix dark style of package version pages ocaml/ocaml.org#2438 by @FrugBatt
- GitHub actions CI broke due to an OpenSSL issue on MacOS
  - PR: Update debug-ci.yml ocaml/ocaml.org#2397 by @cuihtlauac
  - PR: Update debug-ci.yml ocaml/ocaml.org#2398 by @cuihtlauac
  - PR: Do brew update before installing openssl@3 to fix macos CI ocaml/ocaml.org#2420 = by @sabine
  - PR: (ci) Restrict openssl on macos to 3.2 to see if that fixes CI ocaml/ocaml.org#2390 by @sabine
Documentation
- PR: Explain how to avoid cyclic abbreviation error with functor applica= tion ocaml/ocaml.o= rg#2457 by @cuihtlauac
- PR: Update tutorial =E2=80=9CTransitioning to Multicore with ThreadSani= tizer=E2=80=9D oca= ml/ocaml.org#2459 by @Oliv= ierNicole
- PR: (docs) web.md: jsonchema->atd exists ocaml/ocaml.org#2454 by @Khady
- PR: Update is_ocaml_yet/gui.md: Plotting ocaml/ocaml.org#2452 by @lukstafi

OCaml Windows Working Group

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-windows-working-group/14755/3

Deep in this thread, Sudha Parimala announced

Thanks to everyone who joined the meeting! Please find the notes here: https://docs.google.com/document= /d/1tt-g5f441ClvdGJuK8fvO9Eu2YvWMwDF1wbZ2f8-gsI/edit#heading=3Dh.kwwpagbnen= by.

The meeting time this time wasn't US time-zone friendly. We'll try to find = a time that works for more people next time.

Registration for Fun OCaml 2024 Opens Shortly

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/registration-for-fu= n-ocaml-2024-opens-shortly/14771/1

Sabine Schmaltz announced

Registration for Fun OCaml 2024 will open shortly at 17:00 CEST (Central Eu= ropean Summer Time) UTC/GMT +2 hours

Please put yourself on the waiting list if you don't get a ticket immediate= ly, we're doing this in a staggered fashion, unlocking more tickets over th= e next days! =F0=9F=A7=A1=F0=9F=90=AB

https://fun-ocaml.com

opam 2.2.0~beta3

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-opam-2-2-0-beta3/14772/1

Kate announced

We=E2=80=99re once again very excited to announce this third and final beta= for opam 2.2.0.

What=E2=80=99s new in this beta?

opam init on Windows enhancements: this beta greatly improves th= e opam init user experience on Windows, and the number of reco= gnised configurations
opam init –cygwin-extra-packages=3D\<pkgs\>: a new = argument to specify additional packages for the internal Cygwin installatio= n
Support of user directories containing spaces: opam now redirect= s the opam root to C:\opamroot\opam-xxx when the opam root con= tains spaces on Windows
UTF-8 paged –help on Windows thanks to cmdliner 1.3.0 and= some additional Windows API calls, all the opam --help comman= ds now display a paged view by default similar to Unix-like systems.
Many fixes, performance and general improvements

:open_book: You can read our blog post for more information about these changes and more= , and for even more details you can take a look at the release note or the changelog.

Windows issues

Configuration of Windows is tricky, so please don=E2=80=99t be too disheart= ened if things don=E2=80=99t work instantly. If something doesn=E2=80=99t w= ork first time, please do = report it, even if you manage to find a way to workaround it. If opam d= idn=E2=80=99t elegantly tell you what was wrong, then it=E2=80=99s a bug an= d we=E2=80=99d love to hear about it, rather than ending up with a series o= f workarounds flying around. It=E2=80=99s no problem at all for us to recei= ve a bug report which turns out to be user error - we=E2=80=99d far rather = that than not hear bugs which are opam=E2=80=99s error! =F0=9F=99=80

How to upgrade

On Windows
BEWARE: the command shown below is experimental, use caution = and please do report any issues that you are experiencing. If you prefer to= not use our experimental script, feel free to get the Windows binary direc= tly from the Release Page and put it in your directory of choice instead.

Now that the Windows support was merged in opam-repository,

installing opam is as simple as calling the following command from a PowerS= hell terminal:
```
Invoke-Expression "& { $(Invoke-RestMethod https://raw.githubuserconten=
t.com/kit-ty-kate/opam/windows-installer/shell/install.ps1) }"
```
opening a new terminal, and a simple opam init will work out-o= f-the-box.
On Unix-like systems
To upgrade, simply run:
```
bash -c "sh <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ocaml/opam/ma=
ster/shell/install.sh) --version 2.2.0~beta3"
```
We=E2=80=99re planning for an opam 2.2.0~rc1 release later next week, so pl= ease do report any issue you encounter on our bug-tracker.

Other OCaml News

From the ocaml.org blog

Here are links from many OCaml blogs aggregated at the ocaml.org blog.

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 loo= k at the archive or the <= a href=3D"https://alan.petitepomme.net/cwn/cwn.rss">RSS feed of the archive= s.

If you also wish to receive it every week by mail, you may subscribe to the= caml-list.

Alan Schmitt

OCaml Weekly News

Table of Contents

Providing Opam system dependancies with Nix

Ryan announced

ppx_deriving.6.0.2 and ppx_deriving_yojson.3.8.0

Nathan Rebours announced

Effective ML Through Merlin's Destruct Command

Xavier Van de Woestyne announced

OCaml Windows Working Group

Sudha Parimala announced

Flambda2 Ep. 2: Loopifying Tail-Recursive Functions, by OCamlP= ro

OCamlPro announced

OCaml Platform Newsletter: March-May 2024

Thibaut Mattio announced

[Dune] Exploring Package Management in Dune (<= a href=3D"https://ocaml.org/docs/platform-roadmap#w4-build-a-project">W4)

[opam] Native Support for Windows in opam 2.2 = (W5)

[=E2=80=8Bodoc=E2=80=8B] Odoc 3.0= : Unify OCaml.org and Local Package Documentation (W25)

[Merlin] Support for Project-Wide References i= n Merlin (W19)

OCaml.org Newsletter: May 2024

Sabine Schmaltz announced

Open Issues for Contributors

Recipes for the OCaml Cookbook

Community & Marketing Pages Rework

Outreachy Internship on Interactive Exercises

OCaml Windows Working Group

Deep in this thread, Sudha Parimala announced

Registration for Fun OCaml 2024 Opens Shortly

Sabine Schmaltz announced

opam 2.2.0~beta3

Kate announced

What=E2=80=99s new in this beta?

Windows issues

How to upgrade

Other OCaml News

From the ocaml.org blog

Old CWN

[=E2=80=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Odoc 3.0= : Unify OCaml.org and Local Package Documentation (W25)