[Caml-list] Feedback wanted about the OCaml windows installer

[Jonathan Protzenko <jonathan.protzenko@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Following Damien's announcement of a new rc-candidate, I set out to 
refresh the OCaml installer for windows and realized that I could use 
some feedback.

The installer currently distributes:
- ocaml, with native and bytecode compilers
- flexlink
- findlib
- "ocamlwin", the infamous windows top-level,
- camlp4
- labltk

Please note that this is not enough to compile native programs, as an 
external assembly tool ("as") is required, so without any extras, the 
user can only use the top-level, and perform byte-code compilation. 
Please note that, even though labltk is distributed, run-time support 
libraries are needed for tk programs to run.

The installer currently:
- offers the option of installing cygwin along with enough packages to 
have a working toolchain, including the "as" tool;
- offers the option of downloading and setting up emacs, along with the 
official caml-mode, and setting up the right file associations (ml and 
mli) in the windows explorer;
- offers the option of downloading activetcl to make sure tools such as 
ocamlbrowser and the labltk libraries work properly.

I am considering:
- dropping "ocamlwin": it is old, buggy, and better replacements are now 
available;
- optionally installing OCamlTop to provide a much-needed replacement 
for "ocamlwin";
- dropping labltk along with the option for downloading activetcl: this 
requires extra effort on my side because it now is distributed as a 
separate project, and I suspect people who are serious about user 
interfaces are using lablgtk, but I'd be interested in hearing your 
opinion about this;
- keeping camlp4 even though it moved off into a separate project
- refreshing emacs to the latest version
- bundling Merlin binaries so that they can be installed along with 
Emacs, if the user is so inclined.

I don't have a good understanding of the current user base of the 
installer; so if you're a user of this installer, I'd be interested in 
hearing your story. Is a good top-level important because you're in 
education? Have you ever used labltk? Are you proficient enough to 
download, say, odb (which, last time I checked, more or less worked on 
Windows), and install the missing packages yourself?

Looking forward to your comments,

~ jonathan