[Caml-list] [ANN] drom.0.2.0: OCaml Project Manager, beta release

[Caml-list] [ANN] drom.0.2.0: OCaml Project Manager, beta release

[Fabrice Le Fessant]

Hi,

  I am happy to announce the first release of `drom`, version 0.2.0, a
tool to create and manage OCaml projects. `drom` is a simple layer on
top of `opam` and `dune`, with project and package descriptions
written in TOML syntax. It is an attempt at providing a `cargo`-like
experience for developers, with builtin support for standard OCaml
tools (`opam`, `dune`, `odoc`, etc.) and source managers (Github for
now, with Github Actions and Github Pages).

There are mainly 2 use-cases of `drom`:

* Scafolding tool: `drom` makes it easy to create OCaml projects by
  generating all the files needed for a standard OCaml project. It
  creates files for `opam` and `dune`, formatters (`ocp-index` and
  `ocamlformat`), documentation (`sphinx` and `odoc`), testing
  directories and Github CI. Once these files have been created,
  `drom` is not needed anymore and you can keep using your preferred
  tools.

* Management tool: `drom` can also be used to keep managing the
  project afterwards. It has commands like `drom build` to build the
  project, automatically installing a local switch with all needed
  dependencies, `drom doc` to generate the documentation and `drom
  test` to execute tests. `drom` works as a simple interface over
  `opam` and `dune` so you almost never need to use them directly.

https://ocamlpro.github.io/drom

(this site and the documentation was mostly generated by `drom` itself)

`drom` is available in the official opam repository.

Examples:

$ drom new mylib --skeleton library // generate library project
                                    //           or
$ drom new hello                    // generate program project

$ cd hello
$ emacs drom.toml // edit the project description
$ drom project    // update files
$ drom build                  // create local switch and build
                              //      or
$ drom build --switch 4.10.0  // use global switch and build
$ ./hello         // run the executable
$ drom test       // run tests
$ drom install    // install in opam switch

This is an early release to get feedback from users. `drom` has been
tested on several of our internal projects, like `opam-bin` and
`ez_file`.

Since `drom` creates local `opam` switches for every project by
default (though it is possible to use global switches too), it is
advised to use it with `opam-bin` to speed up switch creation and
upgrades.

`drom` works by creating projects using "skeletons", i.e. project and
package templates. `drom` comes with a few predefined skeletons
(`program` or `library`), and allows users to add their own
skeletons. We will of course extend the substitution language to help
users develop such new skeletons.

`drom` is a collaborative work between OCamlPro and Origin Labs.

Enjoy !
--
Fabrice LE FESSANT

Re: [Caml-list] [ANN] drom.0.2.0: OCaml Project Manager, beta release

[François Bobot]

Hi,

Le 25/11/2020 à 14:05, Fabrice Le Fessant a écrit :
>`drom` is a simple layer on
> top of `opam` and `dune`, with project and package descriptions
> written in TOML syntax. It is an attempt at providing a `cargo`-like
> experience for developers, with builtin support for standard OCaml
> tools (`opam`, `dune`, `odoc`, etc.) and source managers (Github for
> now, with Github Actions and Github Pages).
> 


I'm very happy to see work in the OCaml world in that direction. I was currently looking for
duniverse for that kind of need. Do they fullfil different needs or how do they compare?

(As a side question for duniverse people, is it still "Not for public consumption just yet"?)

Best,

-- 
François

Re: [Caml-list] [ANN] drom.0.2.0: OCaml Project Manager, beta release

[Fabrice Le Fessant]

Hi François,

On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 2:22 PM François Bobot <francois.bobot@cea.fr> wrote:
> I'm very happy to see work in the OCaml world in that direction. I was currently looking for
> duniverse for that kind of need. Do they fullfil different needs or how do they compare?

My understanding is that `duniverse` tackles the problem of the
"mono-repo", i.e. when you want to manage many different projects as
just one project, using `dune` capacity to build them all at once. I
would say that `drom` tackles an orthogonal problem, which is to
simplify the creation of simple OCaml projects (generating all the
standard files you need, like Makefile, dune-project, dune,
.ocamlformat, .github CI, documentation, license, etc.) and day-to-day
management (changing dependencies, having a copy of headers that you
can insert in new files, etc.). It also provides a single interface
over basic opam/dune commands.

It would probably be possible to use `duninverse` on a set of projects
containing projects generated by `dune`, but I don't know enough about
`duniverse` to be sure.

Of course, `drom` can manage projects composed of multiple libraries
and executables (called `packages` because `drom` generates one `opam`
file for every one of them), but I wouldn't call that a mono-repo,
it's just frequent to have more than one package in a small project.
--
Fabrice