[Caml-list] Need help installing OCaml-Cygwin packages!

[Caml-list] Need help installing OCaml-Cygwin packages!

[wizbyron]

I'm unable to download/install any OCaml-Cygwin Package to my Win7Ux64 PC?
These OCaml Cygwin Packages, I've listed below, are listed as available on
partner website at www.cygwin.com/packages ... But when I run their Cygwin
setup-x86_64.exe application to install them on my Win7Ux64 PC, not even so
much as 1 of those OCaml packages/programs is listed to select from, on any of
the mirror download sites that are shown to choose from, within the setup
program itself! Why is that happening? Also, maybe there might be an alternate
way to download/install them directly from the website itself at cygwin.com/
packages using my web-browser? And how exactly (step-by-step) would I go about
doing that alternative, if that would even work at all for me?..

1. ocaml - The OCaml compiler and runtime (install helper)
2. ocaml-base - The OCaml compiler and runtime (base system)
3. ocaml-camlp4 - The OCaml compiler and runtime (camlp4)
4. ocaml-compiler-libs - The OCaml compiler and runtime (compiler libraries)
5. ocaml-llvm - LLVM library (OCaml bindings)

...And Sincere Thanks for your quick assistance/response to this dire
situation of mine!

Re: [Caml-list] Need help installing OCaml-Cygwin packages!

[Florent Monnier]

2013/8/16, wizbyron@yahoo.com <wizbyron@yahoo.com>:
> I'm unable to download/install any OCaml-Cygwin Package to my Win7Ux64 PC?
> These OCaml Cygwin Packages, I've listed below, are listed as available on
> partner website at www.cygwin.com/packages ... But when I run their Cygwin
> setup-x86_64.exe application to install them on my Win7Ux64 PC, not even so
> much as 1 of those OCaml packages/programs is listed to select from, on any
> of
> the mirror download sites that are shown to choose from, within the setup
> program itself! Why is that happening? Also, maybe there might be an
> alternate
> way to download/install them directly from the website itself at
> cygwin.com/
> packages using my web-browser? And how exactly (step-by-step) would I go
> about
> doing that alternative, if that would even work at all for me?..
>
> 1. ocaml - The OCaml compiler and runtime (install helper)
> 2. ocaml-base - The OCaml compiler and runtime (base system)
> 3. ocaml-camlp4 - The OCaml compiler and runtime (camlp4)
> 4. ocaml-compiler-libs - The OCaml compiler and runtime (compiler
> libraries)
> 5. ocaml-llvm - LLVM library (OCaml bindings)
>
> ...And Sincere Thanks for your quick assistance/response to this dire
> situation of mine!

On my side I've tryed all available solutions (included compile from sources).
My test windows environment is Windows 7 on a 32 bit architecture.
Cygwin's ocaml was the one that was working the best for me, but I'm
not using it because using Cygwin's toolchain means that everything
that you do has to be GPL.
So are you sure that's what you want?
I'm currently only doing open-source, but I don't like "coercive freedom".
I like to make free things really freely :p
So I'm using protz ocaml instead,
the download link is available here:
http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html
The link is called:
"Self installer (4.00.0) for the port based on the MinGW toolchain"
Don't beleive the 4.00.0 indication, it's right 4.00.1 !

But indeed later it's much simple to compile and install other
additional libraries with Cygwin's OCaml than with Protz's OCaml,
mostly because of directory separator.
But I haven't understood why Protz' OCaml uses '\', since when I'm
inside cmd.exe, the windows terminal, using '/' works just fine, but
using '\' inside Cygwin's terminal just clashes...

Anyway for libs using a good old Makefile it's quite easy to fix this
issue. With an _oasis build it may be harder, and most often when I
don't want to waste time, I just rewrite a Makefile from scratch.
Makefiles are usually more portable than oasis builds.

I've never succeed to compile ocaml itself from sources on Windows,
but I'm an early beginner on Windows, you might be more lucky than me
if you try, the complete details are there:
http://caml.inria.fr/pub/distrib/ocaml-4.01/notes/README.win32

--

Re: [Caml-list] Need help installing OCaml-Cygwin packages!

[Jonathan Protzenko]

> But I haven't understood why Protz' OCaml uses '\', since when I'm
> inside cmd.exe, the windows terminal, using '/' works just fine, but
> using '\' inside Cygwin's terminal just clashes...
If you have specific instances of a "\" that would be better turned 
into a "/", I can take a look. I think I just did whatever seemed 
easiest at the time. I'm using the stock OCaml sources, meaning I 
didn't change anything in OCaml's Makefile, so some "\" might originate 
from there.

Cheers,

jonathan

RE: [Caml-list] Need help installing OCaml-Cygwin packages!

[David Allsopp]

Jonathan Protzenko wrote:
> > But I haven't understood why Protz' OCaml uses '\', since when I'm
> > inside cmd.exe, the windows terminal, using '/' works just fine, but
> > using '\' inside Cygwin's terminal just clashes...
> If you have specific instances of a "\" that would be better turned into a
> "/", I can take a look. I think I just did whatever seemed easiest at the
> time. I'm using the stock OCaml sources, meaning I didn't change anything
> in OCaml's Makefile, so some "\" might originate from there.

Personally, I wouldn't go changing working ones from "\" to "/" - for the most part, programs which use "/" as the directory separator on Windows make it quite clear that they weren't written for Windows (and so cast doubt on their quality - if a program is written using properly portable name manipulation, the directory separator is not hard coded - for example in OCaml, see Filename). It's not relevant now, because the versions of Windows have expired, but older command shells could not consistently use / as a separator (try cd /WINNT on Windows 2000...).

Cygwin programs accept / as a Windows PATH separator for pretty much the same reason as Windows (or historically DOS) uses \ - because it didn't interfere with the command line parsing already in place (DOS had command line switches prefixed with "/" before it had directories). The forward slash is therefore used in the build system (as that's Cygwin) but the output should really use backslashes - for example, both %OCAMLLIB% and %OCAMLLIB%\ld.conf in OCaml accept PATHs written that way.


David 

Re: [Caml-list] Need help installing OCaml-Cygwin packages!

[Damien Doligez]

Hello,

64-bit cygwin is still a very new thing, and unfortunately OCaml is not
yet ported to it. I managed to get the bytecode running, but now I have to
concentrate on doing the release of 4.01.0. Then I'll be on vacation, so
I can't promise a 64-bit cygwin package of OCaml before about mid-November.

-- Damien



On 2013-08-16, at 03:14, <wizbyron@yahoo.com> <wizbyron@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I'm unable to download/install any OCaml-Cygwin Package to my Win7Ux64 PC?
> These OCaml Cygwin Packages, I've listed below, are listed as available on
> partner website at www.cygwin.com/packages ... But when I run their Cygwin
> setup-x86_64.exe application to install them on my Win7Ux64 PC, not even so
> much as 1 of those OCaml packages/programs is listed to select from, on any of
> the mirror download sites that are shown to choose from, within the setup
> program itself! Why is that happening? Also, maybe there might be an alternate
> way to download/install them directly from the website itself at cygwin.com/
> packages using my web-browser? And how exactly (step-by-step) would I go about
> doing that alternative, if that would even work at all for me?..
> 
> 1. ocaml - The OCaml compiler and runtime (install helper)
> 2. ocaml-base - The OCaml compiler and runtime (base system)
> 3. ocaml-camlp4 - The OCaml compiler and runtime (camlp4)
> 4. ocaml-compiler-libs - The OCaml compiler and runtime (compiler libraries)
> 5. ocaml-llvm - LLVM library (OCaml bindings)
> 
> ...And Sincere Thanks for your quick assistance/response to this dire
> situation of mine!
> 
> -- 
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> https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list
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