Re: [Caml-list] geany as an ocaml ide

[Gabriel Scherer <gabriel.scherer@gmail.com>]

The OCaml installer for windows (
http://protz.github.com/ocaml-installer/ ) optionally downloads and
install Emacs, configured for OCaml use. Couldn't the same approach be
used to install Geany (or whatever modern-beginner-friendly existing
editor that works on Windows) on end-user systems?

On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Fabrice Le Fessant
<Fabrice.Le_fessant@inria.fr> wrote:
> Hi Gabriel,
>
>   The goal of this editor is not to replace Emacs or VI, but to be part of a
> minimal distribution under Windows (by OCamlPro): the idea is that Windows
> users downloading OCaml should be able to start writing a simple OCaml
> program without installing anything else. Of course, under Linux/Mac OS X,
> or for bigger projects, they would be advised to use more powerful editors
> (Emacs, Vim, Notepad++, etc.).
>
>   Moreover, the two paradigms are not incompatible: you can imagine two
> versions of the "editor", one version with an interface (GTK or whatever) to
> interact with beginners, another version with a argument/text interface, to
> interact with other editors, both providing the same set of functionalities
> (indentation, coloring, documentation, code navigation, etc.) through the
> same set of libraries, and why not a Javascript version through
> js_of_ocaml...
>
> --Fabrice
>
>
> On 02/11/2013 01:14 PM, Gabriel Scherer wrote:
>>
>> I must say I'm a bit dubious of dedicated editors: people prefer to
>> use the tools they're familiar with from other languages, and I'm not
>> really sure what the added value of a different tool would be. There
>> have been attempts to write editors for OCaml (Cameleon{,2}, zed (
>> https://github.com/diml/zed )...), so far none of them really gained
>> traction.
>>
>> Volunteers work on whatever they fancy and I prefer not to interfere
>> negatively -- though it's unclear in this case whether this is a
>> personal side-project or an OCamlPro project. Moreover, all these
>> efforts have led to interesting byproducts: various libraries from
>> Cameleon (eg. ocaml-rss http://zoggy.github.com/ocamlrss/ ) and zed (
>> and in particular the nice toplevel utop https://github.com/diml/utop
>> ).
>>
>> That said, I would still feel more enthusiastic about a project that
>> can be used with other tools people use ( this is a good property of
>> ocp-indent for example ), or directly improving OCaml support about
>> tools that already have a user base : syntax highlighting libraries
>> for various editors, etc. For example, Online Client-side
>> Javascript-implemented In-the-cloud programming editors are all the
>> rage now, they use a relatively small number of popular Javascript
>> edition engines under the hood, is there work to do to make sure OCaml
>> a first-class citizen there?
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 12:40 PM, Louis Gesbert
>> <louis.gesbert@ocamlpro.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> OCaml is definitely lacking in this area; I am at the moment working
>>> precisely
>>> on solving this issue, with a dedicated Gtk editor that runs on Linux,
>>> OSX and
>>> Windows. It is pretty basic at the moment but already has code edition
>>> and
>>> working toplevel interaction (no compilation or project yet).
>>>
>>> Release is intended in a few months from now, with sufficient features
>>> for
>>> beginners and students. If successful, it will then be extended to handle
>>> bigger projects (multi-file, build system integration, etc.).
>>>
>>> Until then, you may see the project's github page at
>>> https://github.com/OCamlPro/ocp-edit-simple (name temporary)
>>>
>>> --
>>> Louis Gesbert, OCamlPro
>>>
>>> Le Monday 11 February 2013 01:49:41, Martin DeMello a écrit :
>>>>
>>>> I spent some time last night going through all the "what is a good
>>>> (beginner's) ide for ocaml?" threads I could find online, and trying
>>>> out the various options suggested. I ruled out the following:
>>>>
>>>> * vim, emacs and eclipse (not beginner-friendly; people who want to
>>>> use them will know how to do it)
>>>> * anything that did not provide a binary install for Windows and OSX,
>>>> and wasn't a simple configure/make/make install on linux
>>>> * anything that needed fiddling with config files just to install it
>>>> * anything that needed the OCaml sources to be independently present
>>>> and configured (!)
>>>> * anything that was abandoned, or didn't seem to support OCaml 4
>>>>
>>>> I was left with Geany and Komodo Edit as possibilities, and Geany won
>>>> out by letting me open up a test.ml file and immediately being able to
>>>> find and run the OCaml compiler. At least on Linux, it was a perfect
>>>> beginner-friendly experience.
>>>>
>>>> So what do people think about ocaml.org officially promoting Geany as
>>>> the answer to "I'm learning OCaml; what is a good IDE?"? I'd be happy
>>>> to write up a page on it and contribute it.
>>>>
>>>> martin
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>