Looking for OCaml IDE [closed]

Question

I like F# but sometimes I need something light and cross-platform and without .NET for sure. I tried to use OCamL many times but seems like I just can't start it.

1. Installed IDEA, added OCamL plugin -> Doesn't work
2. Installed eclipse ODT plugin -> Can't launch even config OCamL compiler - too complicated
3. Even had tried NetBeans plugin a long time ago but even can't deal with it.

So, for now, I'm using ocamlc -o "main.exe" "main.ml" from the command shell and different light editors. I don't use Vim or Emacs, I'm using nano and I have a habit of usage full-featured IDEs.

I found various documentation (this is looking like the best to start http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/oreilly-book/html/index.html for me) but still being confusing when looking for something a bit specific alike sqlite access. found this: http://neugierig.org/software/ocaml/sqlite/ with strange api annotation and no examples. And all the documentation about IDE usage I found are outdated or doesn't work.

Addition subquestion: some people told me "don't use OCamL, it's a dead language for students with low libraries support and seems like dying, use python or ruby instead". But I like the beauty of OCamL. I want to give it a try. Tell me if that is normal to use OCamL for production code today?

thank you.

Answer 1

There is TypeRex, a new development environment for OCaml. Here is a summary of TypeRex features:

• Improved syntax coloring
• Auto-completion of identifiers (experimental)
• Browsing of identifiers: show type and comment, go to definition, cycle between alternate definitions, and semantic grep;
• Strictly semantic-preserving, local and whole-program refactoring:
  • renaming identifiers and compilation units
  • open elimination and reference simplification
• Robust w.r.t. not-recompiled, possibly unsaved buffers
• Scalable (used regularly on a few hundreds of source files)

There are some screenshots available on the website. The first release candidate is out since yesterday.

EDIT: The first release (v1.0) is out now :-)

Answer 2

There are a few options:

1. Tuareg for emacs was already mentioned: http://tuareg.forge.ocamlcore.org/
2. vim has a few options for OCaml integration, with one good example available here: http://www.ocaml.info/software.html#vim
3. OcaIDE seems to be the best option for Eclipse: http://www.algo-prog.info/ocaide/
4. Geany, Komodo Edit and a number of other editors have syntax highlighting support for OCaml and some extra IDE-like features which are independent of the programming language being used. Most of these have limited OCaml-specific support.

OCaml is not dead. Some of the more vocal industry users of OCaml are XenSource/Citrix and Jane St. Capital. The language does not receive the same public and community evangelism that some other languages receive.

Answer 3

It's been years, but I really liked emacs' tuareg mode http://tuareg.forge.ocamlcore.org/

But if you're afraid of emacs, then it's not the right tool.

I specially like the shell integration and the possibility to "throw" a function you're developping in the shell and then test it.

EDIT For the subquestion, OCaml seems dead, and it's a pitty. However you cannot compare it with ruby/python. I'd say it's main competitor is Haskell which seems to be growing in popularity.

Answer 4

Googling "ocaml ide" shows now http://camelia.sourceforge.net/ as the first result. Haven't tested it though, so I can't really say if it is recommendable or not.