OCaml Weekly News

Hello

Here is the latest OCaml Weekly News, for the week of March 26 to April 02,= 2024.

Odoc 3.0 planning

Archive: = https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/odoc-3-0-planning/14360/1

Jon Ludlam announced

For many years we've had a team here at Tarides working away on Odoc, quiet= ly adding new features, fixing bugs, speeding things up and generally enabling OCaml package mantainers to write good documentation= . Up until recently, those improvements have mostly been incremental, but with the recent addition of some larger new features like = search and source rendering we've found we need to think a bit more broadly and consider how these changes will fit into the larger ec= osystem. We're also thinking of how to extend the abilities of Odoc to handle more structure in the documentation, with bette= r support for images, an improved sidebar, and a better ability to link to the docs of other packages.

We've therefore started the process that's going to lead to Odoc 3.0, which= will involve not only work on odoc itself, but also on ocaml.org, the documentation pipeline that produces the docs for ocaml.org,= dune, and odig. It's being done incrementally, so we've started with the core issues of how to structure your docs, how to do refer= ences both within the docs and across packages, what the output file structure will look like and how the breadcrumbs will reflect t= hat. What we've posted so far is by no means the final version, and we'd love to get feedback on the suggestions we've got so far.= Getting this right is surprisingly complicated, so the more people we have thinking about it, the better our chances of success!

So if you're interested in writing or reading docs, I encourage you to head= on over to the discussion we've just started on ocaml/odoc and join in the conversation!

OCaml Platform Newsletter: February 2024

Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-platform-newsletter= -february-2024/14361/1

Thibaut Mattio announced

Welcome to the tenth edition of the OCaml Platform newsletter!

In this February 2024 edition, we are excited to bring you the latest on th= e OCaml Platform, continuing our tradition of highlighting recent developments as seen in previous editions. To understand the direction we're headed, especially regarding development workflows and user experienc= e improvements, check out our roadmap.

Highlights:

The OCaml Platform tools have added support for OCaml 5.2. It's availab= le in the temporary releases
- Merlin 4.= 14-502~preview (@voodoos (Tarides))
- Ocaml-lsp-server 1.18.0~5.2preview (@voodoos (Tarides))
- Ppxlib 0= .32.1~5.2preview (@NathanReb (partly funded by the OCaml Softwar= e Foundation)).

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), @kit-ty-kate (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 command to generate a lock file and enhancing dune build to ha= ndle dependencies in the lock file. More details in the Dune RFC.

Activities:

One of the main remaining blockers to make Dune package management usab= le in real world project is to make some of the low level dependencies, not= ably OCamlFind and the OCaml compiler, relocatable. – ocaml/ocamlfind#72
We experimented with a Coq-platform patch to make OCamlFind relocatable= , but we faced issues with packages using topkg due to o= camlbuild build failures. This led to identifying an error with dire= ctory symlink handling in Dune ocaml/dune#9873, ocaml/dune#9937
To track the buildability of opam packages with Dune package management= , we worked on a GitHub action that effectively provides us with a dashboar= d of opam packages coverage on a select set of packages. The repository is = available at gri= dbugs/dune-pkg-dashboard.
Based on the findings from the above, several issues were opened on the= Dune issue tracker. All the known issues are now tracked in the Package Management MVP milestone on Dune'= s issue tracker.
We also focused on improving features that were previously implemented.= Noteworthy changes include the addition of workspace package pins and enhancements for corre= ct path handling in packages – ocaml/dune#9940
Work included updates and refactorings to improve source fetching, part= icularly the removal of a rudimentary Git config parser in favor of using <= code>git config directly (ocaml/dune#9905), and enhancements to how Dune handles Git re= positories, such as the checking out of Git repos via rev_store (ocaml/dune#10060).


Contributions also focused on refining and testing Dune's package handl=
ing, including a fix to ensure that opam's untar code is not used (ocaml/dune#10085), and im=
provements to Dune's handling of recursive submodules in Git repos (ocaml/dune#10130).



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


Contributed by: @rjbou (OCamlPro), @kit-ty-kate (Tarides), @dra27 (T=
arides), @AltGr (OCamlPro)



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



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



Activities:


Addressed the issue where the Windows loader would display blocking dia=
logue boxes upon failing to find DLLs, adhering to best practices by suppre=
ssing these dialogs, and opting for exit codes instead. This enhancement el=
iminates disruptive interruptions, ensuring a more seamless operation for a=
utomated tasks and CI environments. – #5828
Fixed shell detection issues when opam is invoked via Cygwin's /u=
sr/bin/env, enhancing compatibility and user experience for those ut=
ilising Cygwin alongside cmd or PowerShell. – #5797
Recommend Developer Mode on Windows. To optimise storage and align with=
 best practices, Developer Mode is recommended for enabling symlink support=
. – #5831
Resolved issues related to environment variable handling, specifically =
fixing bugs where updates or additions to environment variables would incor=
rectly remove or alter them. – #5837
Addressed early loading of git location information, particularly benef=
iting Windows users by ensuring correct retrieval and application of git-re=
lated configurations. – #5842
Disabled ACL in Cygwin. By setting noacl in /etc/fst=
ab for /cygdrive mount, this change avoids permission m=
ismatch errors, enhancing reliability and usability for Cygwin users.  =
13; #5796
Introduced the ability to define the package manager path at initialisa=
tion, improving customisation and integration capabilities for Windows user=
s. – #5847
Added winsymlinks:native to the Cygwin environment variabl=
e, improving compatibility within the Cygwin ecosystem. – #5793
Fixed script generation issues related to path quoting, ensuring smooth=
er initialisation and setup processes, especially in mixed-environment scen=
arios like Cygwin. – #5841
Corrected the precedence and handling of git-location conf=
igurations during initialisation, streamlining Git integration and providin=
g clearer control over Git settings. – #5848
Extended the use of eval-variables to internal Cygwin installations and=
 adjusted the setup to better accommodate Windows-specific requirements, en=
hancing flexibility and system compiler integration. – #5829




[=E2=80=8Bodoc=E2=80=8B] Unify OC=
aml.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 consolidating the different odoc documentation generators =
will help make continuous improvements to odoc available to a
larger audience.



What: We will write conventions that drivers must follow to ensure t=
hat 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.org (a navigational sidebar, for instance). T=
his will effectively make Dune usable to generate
OCaml.org package documentation.



Activities:


Work continued on the design for the new odoc drivers conv=
entions shared by Dune and OCaml.org, and we plan to publish the RFC in Mar=
ch.
We also started comparing and prototyping various approaches to add sid=
ebar support to odoc. Several prototypes have been developed a=
nd discussed with the team, and we will resume work on the sidebar implemen=
tation once the driver conventions have been adopted.




[=E2=80=8Bodoc=E2=80=8B] Add Sear=
ch Capabilities to odoc (W25)


Contributed by: @panglesd (Tarides), @EmileTrotignon (Tarides), @jul=
ow (Tarides), @jonludlam (Tarides)



Why: Improve usability and navigability in OCaml packages documentat=
ion, both locally and on OCaml.org, by offering advanced
search options like type-based queries.



What: Implementing a search engine interface in odoc, c=
omplete with a UI and a search index. Additionally, we're developing a
default client-side search engine based on Sherlodoc.



Activities:


The implementation and refinement of sherlodoc's integration with odoc =
were our major focuses, this included making sherlodoc pass opam CI on diff=
erent architectures and adjusting the dune rules for better usability  =
13; ocaml/dune#9956=

After the big sherlodoc PR was merged and sherlodoc released last month=
, work continued on refining the dune rules for sherlodoc and on adjusting =
the search bar's scope based on discussions with the team.
We implemented keyboard navigation in the search bar to improve its usa=
bility – ocaml/o=
doc#1088




[=E2=80=8Bodoc=E2=80=8B] Improvin=
g odoc Performance (W25)


Contributed by: @jonludlam (Tarides), @julow (Tarides), @gpetiot (Ta=
rides)



Why: Address performance issues in odoc, particularly f=
or large-scale documentation, to enhance efficiency and user experience
and unlock local documentation generation in large code bases.



What: Profiling odoc to identify the main performance b=
ottlenecks and optimising odoc with the findings.



Activities:


Performance improvements were achieved by addressing issues with source=
 location lookups for non-existent identifiers, significantly improving lin=
k time for large codebases.
Several PRs from the module-type-of work were opened, including fixes a=
nd tests aimed at enhancing odoc's handling of transitive libr=
ary dependencies, shape lookup, and module-type-of expansions –  ocaml/odoc#1078, ocaml/odoc#1081
Improve the efficiency of finding odoc files in accessible=
 paths, cutting the time to generate documentation by two in some of our te=
sts – ocaml/odoc=
#1075




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


Contributed by: @voodoos (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 OCam=
l LSP.



Activities:


Continued investigations and improvements on Dune rules to address conf=
iguration issues
After adding support for OCaml 5.2 to merlin-lib, we've re=
based the project-wide occurrences work over it.
We also started work with the Jane Stree team to test project wide refe=
rences at scale in their monorepo. Following our initial integration, we fo=
cused on refining Merlin's indexing and occurrence query capabilities, incl=
uding addressing bottlenecks and regressions in shape reductions – <=
a href=3D"https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/pull/13001">ocaml/ocaml#13001<=
/li>




[Merlin] Improving Merlin's Performance (W19)


Contributed by: @pitag (Tarides), @Engil (Tarides)



Why: Some Merlin queries have been shown to scale poorly in large co=
debases, making the editor experience subpar. Users report
that they sometimes must wait a few seconds to get the answer. This is obvi=
ously a major issue that hurts developer experience, so
we're working on improving Merlin performance when it falls short.



What: Developing benchmarking tools and optimising Merlin's performa=
nce through targeted improvements based on profiling and
analysis of benchmark results.



Activities:


In merlin-lib, we've continued the work on a prototype to =
process the buffer in parallel with the query computation. Parallelism refe=
rs to OCaml 5 parallelism (domains).



Your Feedback Needed on OCaml Home Page Wireframe!


Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/your-feedback-n=
eeded-on-ocaml-home-page-wireframe/14366/1



Claire Vandenberghe announced


I'm reaching out to ask for a few minutes of your time to review the wirefr=
ame designs for the OCaml Home, Industrial, and Academic
pages.



After conducting user interviews with OCaml enthusiasts, we've gathered val=
uable insights on what information newcomers find most
helpful when visiting the OCaml home.



As a result, we've been working on restructuring these three major pages to=
 better cater to user needs.=20



(Please note that these wireframes primarily focus on navigation, layout=
, and content, rather than the User Interface (UI).)



Your feedback is crucial at this stage, so please feel free to leave commen=
ts directly on Figma, via email, or let's schedule a quick
call to discuss. Thank you for taking part in this review.=20



Figma Link:
https://www.figma.com/file/eLNSdvayxqvvfBsRsdbJXN/OCaml-Home-Page=
?type=3Ddesign&node-id=3D5%3A2500&mode=3Ddesign&t=3DhHclskuVpoO=
zKP2u-1





OCaml Workshop 2024 at ICFP – announcement and call for=
 proposals


Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/o=
caml-workshop-2024-at-icfp-announcement-and-call-for-proposals/14371/1



Sonja Heinze announced


This year, ICFP (the Internatio=
nal Conference on Functional Programming) is going to take place in
beautiful Milan.









Such as every year since 2012, on the last day of that conference, i.e. on =
September 7th (Saturday), we'll hold a workshop on
OCaml. The workshop is intended to cover all different kinds of aspects of =
the OCaml programming language as well as the OCaml
ecosystem and its community, such as scientific and/or research-oriented, e=
ngineering and/or user-oriented, as well as social and/or
community-oriented.



Call for talk proposals


The =
call for talk proposals for the workshop is open.



Dates



Here are the important dates:



Talk proposal submission deadline: May 30th (Thursday)
Author notification: July 4th (Thursday)
Workshop: September 7th (Saturday)



Submissions



Submissions are typically around 2 pages long (flexible), describing the mo=
tivations of the work and what the presentation would be
about.



We encourage everyone who might be interested in giving a talk to submit a =
proposal! We truly mean everyone, and also have strongly
anyone in mind who belongs to a group that's traditionally underrepresented=
 at OCaml workshops, e.g. due to your gender(s) or
non-gender, where you're from or based or whatever other kinds of character=
istics you might have. You should all be able to find all
information you'll need to submit a proposal on the official call for talk
proposals. However, if you have any question, don't hesitate to ask us.



Quota on accepted talks per affiliation



Even though none of us is a fan of quotas, last year's workshop experimente=
d with a quota of a maximum of four talks given by
speakers with the same company/university/institute affiliation. In order t=
o guarantee a coverage of a diverse range of topics and
perspectives, we'll experiment with the same affiliation quota again.



Do not hesitate to submit your talk proposal in any case: quotas, if needed=
, will be taken into account by the PC after reviewing all
submissions, so there's no reason to self-select upfront.






About the workshop itself


So far, we've only talked about talk proposals and formalities. The really =
exciting part will be the workshop itself! It's going to
be a whole-day workshop and, similarly to previous years, it's likely going=
 to have four sessions of about four talks each. It's a
rather informal and interactive environment, where people engage in all kin=
ds of conversations about OCaml during the breaks and
after the workshop.



Hybrid attendance and cost for speakers



We're aiming to make the workshop hybrid with the same streaming modalities=
 as last year, meaning that talks as well as
participation can be either in-person or remote, and remote attendan=
ce will be free. To promote a good atmosphere,
communication and engagement, we prefer to have most talks in-person, but r=
emote talks will be most welcome as well.



We know that giving the talk in-person comes with an economic cost. We're v=
ery happy to announce that thanks to the =
OCaml Software
Foundation, registration fees will be covered for speakers in ca=
se they can't get them funded by other
means (e.g. their employer).



We will do our best to provide the best workshop experience possible for re=
mote participants, within the constraints of the hybrid
format. While attending in-person does come with advantages, it also comes =
with an environmental cost, and we strongly support
transitioning to a less plane-intensive organization for conferences and co=
mmunity events :deciduous_tree: .



Related events



The day before the OCaml workshop, i.e. Sep 6th (Friday), is the day of the=
 ML
workshop, with focus on more theoretical aspects of OCaml and the whole=
 family of
ML languages in general. The ML workshop h=
as already been announced on the OCaml
discuss and tends to be very
interesting for OCaml lovers as well.



We're looking forward to the the talk submissions and to the workshop!
Let us know if you have any questions.
@Armael and @pitag








down.0.2.0 and omod.0.4.0


Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-down-0-2-0-and-omod-0-4-0/14380=
/1



Daniel B=C3=BCnzli announced


It's my pleasure to announce new releases for down and
omod which provide a nic=
e ocaml toplevel user experience upgrade. Simply add to your
.ocamlinit:=20


#use "down.top"
#use "omod.top"=20



And enjoy all the benefits you can learn about in the down manual and in the
omod tutor=
ial.



These are mainly maintenance releases but if you ever though that down was =
a bit slow when pasting code, it now (well for almost two
years=E2=80=A6) implements bracketed pastes. Thanks to @emillon for the reference.





stdlib-random 1.2


Archive: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ann-stdlib-random-1-2/14381/1



octachron announced


The library stdlib-random is a small compatibility library tha=
t provides compiler-independent implementations of the PRNGs used in
the history of the standard library Random:



stdlib-random.v3: implement the PRNG used in OCaml 3.07 to 3.11
stdlib-random.v4: implement the PRNG used in OCaml 3.12 to 4.14
stdlib-random.v5: implement the PRNG currently used in OCaml 5
stdlib-random.v5o: implement the PRNG currently used in OCaml 5 in pure=
 OCaml



This library is targeted toward programs that need a deterministic and stab=
le behaviour of the Random module across OCaml versions.



The newly released version 1.2.0 updates all implementations to provide the=
 new int_in_range function (and its int32_in_range,
nativeint_in_range, int64_in_range variants)  tha=
t will be available in OCaml 5.2.0.



Note however that the implementations on the pre-OCaml 5 PRNGs are not opti=
mal, since I prioritised the maintenance cost over
performance, but that could be changed if required.





Other OCaml News



From the ocaml.org blog


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



NetHSM: Bringing Open Source=
 to the World of Hardware Security Modules
Frama-Clang=
 v0.0.15 for Frama-C 28.0 Nickel





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

Odoc 3.0 planning

Jon Ludlam announced

OCaml Platform Newsletter: February 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=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Unify OC= aml.org and Local Package Documentation (W25)

[=E2=80=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Add Sear= ch Capabilities to `odoc` (W25)

[=E2=80=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Improvin= g `odoc` Performance (W25)

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

Your Feedback Needed on OCaml Home Page Wireframe!

Claire Vandenberghe announced

OCaml Workshop 2024 at ICFP – announcement and call for= proposals

Sonja Heinze announced

Call for talk proposals

About the workshop itself

down.0.2.0 and omod.0.4.0

Daniel B=C3=BCnzli announced

stdlib-random 1.2

octachron announced

Other OCaml News

From the ocaml.org blog

Old CWN

OCaml Weekly News

Table of Contents

Odoc 3.0 planning

Jon Ludlam announced

OCaml Platform Newsletter: February 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] Unify OC= aml.org and Local Package Documentation (W25)

[=E2=80=8Bodoc=E2=80=8B] Add Sear= ch Capabilities to odoc (W25)

[=E2=80=8Bodoc=E2=80=8B] Improvin= g odoc Performance (W25)

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

Your Feedback Needed on OCaml Home Page Wireframe!

Claire Vandenberghe announced

OCaml Workshop 2024 at ICFP – announcement and call for= proposals

Sonja Heinze announced

Call for talk proposals

About the workshop itself

down.0.2.0 and omod.0.4.0

Daniel B=C3=BCnzli announced

stdlib-random 1.2

octachron announced

Other OCaml News

From the ocaml.org blog

Old CWN

[=E2=80=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Unify OC= aml.org and Local Package Documentation (W25)

[=E2=80=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Add Sear= ch Capabilities to `odoc` (W25)

[=E2=80=8B`odoc`=E2=80=8B] Improvin= g `odoc` Performance (W25)