Re: [Caml-list] ocaml ncurses bindings

[Paul Pelzl <pelzlpj@eecs.umich.edu>]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2006 at 05:47:21PM +0100, Nicolas George wrote:
> Le septidi 27 pluviôse, an CCXIV, Kai Kuehne a écrit :
> > Just a question... I wan't to start programming in Ocaml but it would be great
> > if there were a ncurses-binding. I know ocaml-tmk, but there is no release yet
> > and it seems that there won't be a release-version. :)
> > 
> > Well.. is anybody here planning to implement a ncurses-binding for ocaml
> > or finish ocaml-tmk?
> 
> Hi. I am the shameful author of ocaml-tmk. I can say that for me, the
> project is dead: I almost do not write Caml these times, and I have more
> pressing things to do.
> 
> I say "shameful" because at least one person proposed to carry on the
> project, and I procrastinated my reply. Which makes I must make apologies
> for replying so late, which makes me procrastinate more. So today I force
> myself to answer. I am really sorry for people who counted on me.

I think I may have offered to take over the project at one point... or
at least I considered offering.  I forget.

I maintain two projects that use a slightly-forked version of your
curses bindings:
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~pelzlpj/orpie
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~pelzlpj/wyrd
Since I'm already maintaining that fork as part of those projects, it
wouldn't be a big deal for me to set up a minimal website and offer the
curses bindings as a separate package.


> I am willing to give the project to anyone who wants it, provided he tells
> me exactly what I have to do on the Savannah website to change the
> ownership, including a possible licence change to include
> I-do-not-remember-what Caml-specific exception to the LGPL..

If you do want to hand over the project to me, I'd rather not deal with
Savannah.  I'd just set up a personal site and let you link to it ("this
project has moved...").


> As for your immediate needs: the ncurses binding in the current state of TMK
> was working and fairly complete last time I checked. As far as I remember,
> the only missing parts are the scanf-like functions and the mouse parts.
> What is not complete at all is the widget system on top of that, but if you
> only need low-level ncurses functions, you may be lucky.
> 
> On the other hand, the code dates back to just before the coming of
> dynalically-loaded primitives. The build system is probably broken with
> regard to that aspect.

Kai, I'd recommend you grab the curses bindings out of the source code
from one of the projects I linked above.  They've got a couple of
bugfixes that are not in ocaml-tmk, and they've been updated to work
with recent OCaml releases.

Paul