Hello
Here is the latest Caml Weekly News, for the week of January 29 to February 05, 2008.
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/bd0596d7198ee770#0fa40c02253034ca
Yaron Minsky announced:I am pleased to announce the second OCaml Summer Project! The OSP is aimed at encouraging growth in the OCaml community by funding students over the summer to work on open-source projects in OCaml. We'll fund up to three months of work, and at the end of the summer, we will fly the participants out for a meeting in New York, where people will present their projects and get a chance to meet with other members of the OCaml community. The project is being funded and run by Jane Street Capital. Jane Street makes extensive use of OCaml, and we are excited about the idea of encouraging and growing the OCaml community. Our goal this year is to get both faculty and students involved. To that end, we will require joint applications from the student or students who will be working on the project, and from a faculty member who both recommends the students and will mentor them throughout the project. Each student will receive a grant of $5k/month for over the course of the project, and each faculty member will receive $2k/month. We expect students to treat this as a full-time commitment, and for professors to spend the equivalent of one day a week on the project. We will also award a prize for what we deem to be the most successful project. Special consideration will be given to projects that display real polish in the form of good documentation, robust build systems, and effective test suites. We'll announce more details about the prize farther down the line. If you'd like to learn more about the OSP and how to apply, you can look at our website here: http://ocamlsummerproject.com Please direct any questions or suggestions you have to osp@janestcapital.com.
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/c26391af3356621e#909dff3d8957c924
Deep in this thread, David Teller announced:If this is of any interest for the discussion, I have just finished putting together a first prototype of fast exception monad. There's room for at least one huge optimization, but the overall idea shouldn't change. I've documented it somewhat here [1]. If there's interest, I guess I could try and reimplement some core modules to make use of this facility, as a manner of determining its usefulness. Or, rather, to add a compatibility layer for some core modules. Cheers, David [1] http://dutherenverseauborddelatable.wordpress.com/downloads/exception-monads-for-ocaml/
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/f7c96ba7b3457f84#dc70812885331165
Sylvain Le Gall announced:This is the final message about this meeting. During the night, i uploaded the video of the meeting to video.google.com. You can find a link in the talks section of the wiki to find the matching videos: http://wiki.cocan.org/events/europe/ocamlmeetingparis2008 The video is not the highest existing quality, but the sound is good and you can view what is happening. I keep the high quality video on my hard drive, but it takes 10GB. If someone really wants this video, i will provide him with it through standard medium. You can send me ~4 DVD and what is needed to send you back the DVD. You can also come here with a HD. Contact me privately if you want to get the high quality video.
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/5b27e22faac4130a#670b5b238429bfe6
Denis Botte announced:Another OCaml Position! We are looking for an intern (3 to 6 months) or 3-month contract to develop a web app in ML. Even beginners with limited OCaml experience but good CS level and willingness to learn can and are encouraged to submit their CV: We'll take care. Position is based in Paris, France. Salary upon qualification. Contact: Denis Botte <contact@asocom.fr>
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/e095762001b66bc6#97a717f5ce7d5913
Greg Meredith announced:A small cadre of us are organizing a Northwest Functional Programming Interest Group (hey... NWFPIG, that's kinda funny). Our first official meeting is at the The Seattle Public Library 1000 - 4th Ave. Seattle, WA 98104 from 17:00 - 18:00 on February 20th. On the first meeting's agenda we'll be - giving people who are interested in or actively using FP for work or play a chance to meet - seeking to build up a pipeline of presentations and guest speakers - trying to keep organizational mishigosh to a minimum Hope to see you there.
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/6168fb4a69030999#f040110292d540d7
Martin Jambon announced:
json-static is a Camlp4 syntax extension for converting between a raw JSON
tree (http://json.org/) and ad hoc OCaml data structures by the means of basic
type definitions.
I just released a version of json-static that works with OCaml/Camlp4 3.10.1.
This is version 0.9.6 and it is available at:
http://martin.jambon.free.fr/json-static.html
or as a GODI package.
Note 1: This version is not compatible with OCaml/Camlp4 3.10.0.
Note 2: Expect future new features to not be backported to the 3.09.x or
Camlp5.
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/8f544ecba159334a#1328caa692630733
Peter Achten announced:1ST CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 6TH INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL ON ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING 2008 (AFP ’08) RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN AND UTRECHT UNIVERSITY, THE NETHERLANDS MAY 19-24, 2008 http://www.st.cs.ru.nl/AFP_TFP_2008/ AFP is a series of international summer schools which aims to bring computer scientists, in particular young researchers and programmers, up to date with the latest advances in practical advanced functional programming. Functional programming emphasizes the evaluation of expressions rather than the execution of commands. We focus on functional programming techniques in “programming in the real world” and bridge the gap between results presented at programming conferences and material from textbooks on functional programming. In this school you will receive in depth lectures about advanced functional programming techniques, taught by experts in the field. Lectures are accompanied by practical problems to be solved by the students at the school. AFP 2008 is hosted by the Radboud University Nijmegen, and Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and will be held in the rural setting of Center Parcs “Het Heijderbos”, Heijen (in the vicinity of Nijmegen), The Netherlands. AFP 2008 is co-located with the 9th Symposium on Trends in Functional Programming (TFP’08), which is held after AFP’08. PROGRAM INFORMATION The following speakers will give the lectures (in alphabetic order): Umut Acar (Toyota Technological Institute, University of Chicago, US) Richard Bird (University of Oxford, UK) Olivier Danvy (University of Aarhus, DK) Johan Jeuring (Utrecht University, NL) Mark Jones (Portland State University, US) Ulf Norell (Chalmers University, SE) Simon Peyton Jones (Microsoft Research, UK) Rinus Plasmeijer (Radboud University Nijmegen, NL) During the summer school, all participants receive printed lecture notes. Participants are expected to have a notebook, in order to be able to participate with the practical problems. After the summer school, all lecture notes will be revised, reviewed, and published in the LNCS series of Springer. All registered participants receive a copy of these lecture notes. VENUE INFORMATION AFP (and TFP) is held in The Netherlands, at Center Parcs “Het Heijderbos” which is a holiday resort in the woodlands near the city of Nijmegen. We accomodate participants in DeLuxe Cottages, each of which has three separate bed-rooms, shared bathroom, toilet, kitchen, and terrace. Cottages will be shared by three participants. If you wish to reduce costs, you can choose to share a bedroom. The summer school and symposium will take place in the business center of the venue. Breakfast, lunch and diner is included within the limits of the venue. The resort features, amongst others, a sub-tropical swimming pool (free for participants), restaurants, shops, water sports lake, midget golf court, squash court, and outdoor and indoor tennis courts. Nijmegen is considered to be the oldest city of the Netherlands, being approximately 2000 years old. Nijmegen is located at the east border of the Netherlands, near Germany. Nijmegen can be reached easily from several airports such as Schiphol airport, Eindhoven airport, and Düsseldorf airport, as well as by train and car. Conveniently close to Center Parcs “Het Heijderbos” you will find airport Weeze in Germany. The venue Center Parcs “Het Heijderbos” can be reached from Nijmegen by train to Boxmeer (25 minutes). From there you will need to order a taxi. The venue can also be reached by car: parking is free for participants of AFP and TFP. SUMMER SCHOOL FEES AFP 2008 includes accommodation, conference, breakfast – lunch – diner, speakers, and proceedings costs. The early registration fee is € 995; the late registration fee is € 1095. Please note that if you require financial support, you can apply for a grant (see below). GRANT INFORMATION We have taken great care to reduce the registration cost as much as possible. We can grant a subsidy for a limited number of PhD student participants for whom the costs are still too high. In order to apply for this subsidy, you need to send (by surface mail or e-mail) a request for subsidy which contains your personal information, affiliation, a description of your current status, project description, a motivation why you should receive the grant, and a recommendation from your PhD supervisor. This letter should arrive before april 7 2008 to: Rinus Plasmeijer Radboud University Nijmegen Toernooiveld 1 6525ED Nijmegen rinus@cs.ru.nl You will receive a notification whether your request has been granted before april 14 2008. REGISTRATION INFORMATION Early registration opens at march 1 2008. Late registration opens at april 15 2008. Registration closes at may 5 2008. We can not guarantee accommodation in case you wish to register later than may 5 2008. IMPORTANT DATES (ALL 2008) Early Registration Opens: March 1 Early Registration Deadline: April 14 Late Registration Opens: April 15 Late Registration Deadline: May 5 AFP Summer School: May 19-24 ORGANIZATION Programme Chair: Rinus Plasmeijer, Pieter Koopman, Radboud University Nijmegen, NL Doaitse Swierstra, Utrecht University, NL Arrangements: Peter Achten, Simone Meeuwsen, Radboud University Nijmegen, NL E-mail: afp_tfp_2008@cs.ru.nl
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/2ecf5121e4b7aadf#a33b6786a0f541cc
Adam Granicz announced:
We have a number of open F#/OCaml developer positions, all based in Budapest,
Hungary. Good F#/OCaml background is highly desirable, strong ..NET skills
are a definite plus. 3-12 month internships are also available.
Interested candidates are urged to get in touch at {jobs or internships} at
intellifactory.com.
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/b3d113afa029bbcc#c3b943a13c3f5a43
Dmitry Bely described:The topic has a long history [1], but since then nothing has actually changed. It's easy to understand: INRIA people are busy and there are probably quite few Ocaml users in the Windows land to worry about. So I decided to do something myself :) (as it was with mingw port several years ago). Let's go into detail. Ocam debugger consists of the the two parts: the client (byterun/debugger.c linked into debuggee) and the server (ocamldebug). The following issues should be addressed to make a Windows port: 1. Checkpointing is done via Unix fork() (client) The most problematic one. I have spend a fair amount of time trying to find an acceptable solution. a) direct port of fork() to Windows. There is a BSD-licenced Windows fork() in tcsh sources [2] that could be used. It's based on Cygwin ideas. But how to handle dynamically loaded DLLs (loaded via LoadLibrary())? I asked the author (Amol Deshpande) and he replied: "DLLs that are dynamically loaded are a can of worms. I would not support those if I were you." BTW, does Cygwin do this right? I doubt at least. b) some checkpoint library. Although Web search gives many references, e.g. [3], I have not found yet anything ready-to-use, even commercial! 2. Unix select (server) It is a problem because server waits for network and console events simultaneously. To work on Windows the main loop should probably be multi-threaded. 3. Unix sockets (client & server) Probably can be ignored. Internet sockets are quite enough. So what is done now. - Client It's ported without (1) and (3). To me it's quite usable even without checkpoints. - Server I don't bother to do (2) right now (until the whole idea is accepted). Currently I use cygwin-compiled ocamldebug with checkpoints and Unix sockets disabled by default. It works well with the native Win32 clients. - OcaIDE Yes, with minor changes in OcaIDE the debugged works there. If it's interesting for anyone I can publish a patch against Ocaml 3.10.1 - Dmitry Bely [1] http://caml.inria.fr/pub/ml-archives/caml-list/1999/03/f44178e212e78826bcbdee52ddf6fd91.en.html http://caml.inria.fr/pub/ml-archives/caml-list/2002/10/ed776d7376ed7a9676d4a9981372ccdf.fr.html [2] http://www.tcsh.org/MostRecentRelease [3] http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix-nt98/full_papers/srouji/srouji_html/srouji.html
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/browse_frm/thread/312eb7f3d3e8e168#1542cd691fa96af9
Martin Jambon announced:Description: ocamlscript is a tool that compiles scripts into native code for optimal speed and ease of use. More at http://martin.jambon.free.fr/ocamlscript.html Now ocamlscript has been upgraded in order to support Camlp4 3.10.1. This is release 2.0.2 and it is available as a GODI package as well. A big Thank You to all the users who keep sending me patches for my various software packages! (usually just telling me "hey this is broken" helps a lot too) It really helps for the transition from camlp4 3.09 to 3.10.1.
Here is a quick trick to help you read this CWN if you are viewing it using vim (version 6 or greater).
:set foldmethod=expr
:set foldexpr=getline(v:lnum)=~'^=\\{78}$'?'<1':1
zM
If you know of a better way, please let me know.
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