00:00 <discocaml> <._null._> OCaml support for Windows is much older than that, but was never great. The most recent installation support (Diskuv) is apparently better than the older method (Cygwin), but they both have to emulate the Unix components the compiler requires so it's always rather heavy. There is still ongoing work for better Windows support, and it might become good at some point in the future though

00:41 <discocaml> <regularspatula> The Diskuv maintainer has mentioned needing contributors on the Discuss forum

07:33 <discocaml> <peuk> It would be good to get a native support of Windows at some point, but it is hard to fund this.

08:10 <adrien> ocaml is native on windows

08:11 <adrien> even when using cygwin, it was able to output binaries which talk directly to the windows APIs

09:14 <discocaml> <peuk> The problem is precisely Cygwin.

09:14 <discocaml> <peuk> Compiling some packages via Cygwin just require a crazy amount of work.

09:15 <discocaml> <peuk> Compiling some packages via Cygwin just requires a crazy amount of work.

09:20 <discocaml> <peuk> I mean, the problem is in fact probably that packages rely too much on Unix features.

09:22 <discocaml> <peuk> Compiling/installing some packages via Cygwin just requires a crazy amount of work.

10:21 <discocaml> <froyo> just don't use janestreet libs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

11:10 <discocaml> <peuk> Or any lib that uses it transitively at some points, or any lib that uses a configure that uses unix commands, or ... 😄

11:12 <discocaml> <peuk> Or any lib that uses it transitively at some points, or any lib that uses a configure or a Makefile that uses unix commands, or ... 😄

11:18 <discocaml> <leviroth> I believe lexifi uses OCaml on windows and doesn’t have a problem with it. I assume they aren’t using opam, though.

11:18 <discocaml> <leviroth> https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-are-the-biggest-reasons-newcomers-give-up-on-ocaml/10958/330?u=levi_roth

11:20 <discocaml> <leviroth> I also don’t think you need to avoid Jane Street libraries to run or develop OCaml program on windows, but you will probably lose anything that involves OS interaction. So no async, but core and the various ppxes are fine, for example

11:24 <discocaml> <peuk> Interesting, I have exactly the opposite experience for shipping our tools on Windows.

11:28 <discocaml> <leviroth> Re: LexiFi also see https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/how-viable-is-delivering-binaries-linked-to-cygwin-to-windows-customers/4775/7?u=levi_roth and the following comment

16:12 <discocaml> <froyo> leviroth: core hard depends on a unix env, it's base that's portable

16:16 <discocaml> <froyo> Peuk: not a big loss. most janestreet stuff has high quality alternatives by big names in the community... plus it'd be a good driving force to simplify your software and reduce deps you don't control or have te time to audit

16:16 <discocaml> <froyo> (I'm half joking)

16:38 <discocaml> <leviroth> Core hasn’t depended on Unix since at least version 0.15.0

16:49 <discocaml> <froyo> so like, last version? good on them though!

16:54 <discocaml> <froyo> hopefully they add some docs next release

16:55 <discocaml> <regularspatula> They have docs

16:55 <discocaml> <regularspatula> Some of their mlis are a bit sparse to be fair