AW: [Caml-list] Ocaml on windows

[Gerd Stolpmann <info@gerd-stolpmann.de>]

Am 24.06.2013 19:21:05 schrieb(en) Adrien Nader:
> On Mon, Jun 24, 2013, Bikal Gurung wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am looking to use ocaml to implement a project for my employer.  
> However, the
> > environment is Windows OS. I am using cygwin and so far it seems to  
> work but
> > curious on experiences others have on using ocaml on windows - both  
> as a
> > development and deployment platform. Also has anyone tried using  
> opam on
> > windows? Does it work?
> >
> 
> I believe opam on windows is pretty far away.
> 
> The issues can be summarized in a few words: source-based package
> manager for ocaml on pure windows.
> For this to fully work, you need a perfect toolchain where everything
> works wonderfully.

I can quickly report what I did to get GODI working on Windows. It is  
of course not "pure Windows": You need Cygwin for doing builds, but  
that's "only" because almost all build utilities are Unix-ish, and it  
would be very hard to build anything without having some shell and the  
usual file utilities at hand. (AFAIK the only build utility that works  
in a pure Windows environment is omake.)

So GODI assumes a mixed Windows environment, and this is in deed  
doable. ocaml and all compiled code run on native Windows here, and for  
executing build scripts there is Cygwin. This solves the utility  
question, but you get in return some new problems, like the different  
calling conventions. All GODI core utilities have e.g. built-in support  
for translating Cygwin paths forth and back, so they can operate on  
Cygwin paths although they are native Windows programs. Another problem  
are the strange Windows rules for splitting a command-line into words.  
As generic fallback when there are too many "bad characters" in the  
command line I simply generate a temporary script that is then executed  
with bash. There are probably more such tricks I currently do not  
remember.

So this mixed mode is actually doable, and works so well that many GODI  
packages can be built on Windows without any special porting effort. If  
you look at WODI, the special adaption of GODI for Windows, you will  
mostly find additional C libraries (because you cannot link against the  
libraries coming with Cygwin).

We could go further and replace Cygwin completely only if we had a  
substitute for the shell utilities. That's the core of the problem, and  
it's a hard one, because many scripts assume 100% POSIX behavior, and  
e.g. using Windows command-line conventions is out of question.

Gerd
-- 
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Gerd Stolpmann, Darmstadt, Germany    gerd@gerd-stolpmann.de
Creator of GODI and camlcity.org.
Contact details:        http://www.camlcity.org/contact.html
Company homepage:       http://www.gerd-stolpmann.de
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