Release notes on the MS Windows ports of Objective Caml ------------------------------------------------------- Starting with OCaml 3.05, there are no less than three ports of Objective Caml for MS Windows available: - a native Win32 port, built with the Microsoft development tools; - a native Win32 port, built with the Cygwin/MinGW development tools; - a port consisting of the Unix sources compiled under the Cygwin Unix-like environment for Windows. Here is a summary of the main differences between these ports: Native MS Native MinGW Cygwin Third-party software required - for base bytecode system none none none - for ocamlc -custom MSVC Cygwin Cygwin - for native-code generation MSVC+MASM Cygwin Cygwin Speed of bytecode interpreter 70% 100% 100% Replay debugger no no yes The Unix library partial partial full The Threads library yes yes yes The Graphics library yes yes no Restrictions on generated executables? none none yes (*) (*) Cygwin-generated .exe files refer to a DLL that is distributed under the GPL. Thus, these .exe files can only be distributed under a license that is compatible with the GPL. Executables generated by MSVC or by MinGW have no such restrictions. The remainder of this document gives more information on each port. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The native Win32 port built with Microsoft Visual C --------------------------------------------------- REQUIREMENTS: This port runs under MS Windows NT, 2000 and XP. Windows 95, 98 and ME are no longer supported. The base bytecode system (ocamlc, ocaml, ocamllex, ocamlyacc, ...) runs without any additional tools. Statically linking Caml bytecode with C code (ocamlc -custom) requires the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler (items [1] and [2] in the section "third-party software" below). Dynamic loading of DLLs is supported out of the box, without additional software. The native-code compiler (ocamlopt) requires Visual C++ (items [1], [2]) and the Microsoft assembler MASM (item [3]). The LablTk GUI requires Tcl/Tk 8.3 (item [4]). INSTALLATION: The binary distribution is a self-installing executable archive. Just run it and it should install OCaml automatically. To run programs that use the LablTK GUI, the directory where the DLLs tk83.dll and tcl83.dll were installed (by the Tcl/Tk installer) must be added to the PATH environment variable. To compile programs that use the LablTK GUI, the directory where the libraries tk83.lib and tcl83.lib were installed (by the Tcl/Tk installer) must be added to the library search path in the LIB environment variable. E.g. if Tcl/Tk was installed in C:\tcl, add "C:\tcl\lib" to the LIB environment variable. THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE: [1] Visual C++ version 6 or later. We use Visual C++ 2003. The free download Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition works under Windows 2000, but not under Windows XP because of the "manifest" annotations on DLLs, which are not yet supported by OCaml. So, please stick with the 2003 edition for the time being. [2] Windows header files and development libraries. We found them in the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK, which can be downloaded for free from http://www.microsoft.com/. [3] MASM version 6.11 or later. MASM can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's Web site; for directions, see http://users.easystreet.com/jkirwan/new/pctools.html. [4] TCL/TK version 8.3. Windows binaries are available from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl832.exe. RECOMPILATION FROM THE SOURCES: The command-line tools can be recompiled from the Unix source distribution (ocaml-X.YZ.tar.gz), which also contains the files modified for Windows. You will need the following software components to perform the recompilation: - Windows NT, 2000, or XP. - Items [1], [2], [3] and [4] from the list of recommended software above. - The Cygwin port of GNU tools, available from http://www.cygwin.com/ Remember to add the directory where the libraries tk83.lib and tcl83.lib were installed (by the Tcl/Tk installer) to the LIB variable (library search path). To recompile, start a Cygwin shell and change to the top-level directory of the OCaml distribution. Then, do cp config/m-nt.h config/m.h cp config/s-nt.h config/s.h cp config/Makefile.msvc config/Makefile Then, edit config/Makefile as needed, following the comments in this file. Normally, the only variables that need to be changed are PREFIX where to install everything TK_ROOT where TCL/TK was installed Finally, use "make -f Makefile.nt" to build the system, e.g. make -f Makefile.nt world make -f Makefile.nt bootstrap make -f Makefile.nt opt make -f Makefile.nt opt.opt make -f Makefile.nt install NOTES: * The VC++ compiler does not implement "computed gotos", and therefore generates inefficient code for byterun/interp.c. Consequently, the performance of bytecode programs is about 2/3 of that obtained under Unix/GCC or Cygwin or Mingw on similar hardware. * Libraries available in this port: "num", "str", "threads", "graphics", "labltk", and large parts of "unix". * The replay debugger is not supported. CREDITS: The initial port of Caml Special Light (the ancestor of Objective Caml) to Windows NT was done by Kevin Gallo at Microsoft Research, who kindly contributed his changes to the Caml project. The graphical user interface for the toplevel was initially developed by Jacob Navia, then significantly improved by Christopher A. Watford. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The native Win32 port built with Mingw -------------------------------------- REQUIREMENTS: This port runs under MS Windows NT, 2000 and XP. Windows 95, 98 and ME are also supported, but less reliably. The base bytecode system (ocamlc, ocaml, ocamllex, ocamlyacc, ...) runs without any additional tools. The native-code compiler (ocamlopt), as well as static linking of Caml bytecode with C code (ocamlc -custom), require the Cygwin development tools, available at http://www.cygwin.com/ You will need to install at least the following Cygwin packages (use the Setup tool from Cygwin): binutils, gcc-core, gcc-mingw-core, mingw-runtime, w32-api. Do *not* install the Mingw/MSYS development tools from www.mingw.org: these are not compatible with this Caml port (@responsefile not recognized on the command line). The LablTk GUI requires Tcl/Tk 8.3. Windows binaries are available from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl832.exe. INSTALLATION: The binary distribution is a self-installing executable archive. Just run it and it should install OCaml automatically. To run programs that use the LablTK GUI, the directory where the DLLs tk83.dll and tcl83.dll were installed (by the Tcl/Tk installer) must be added to the PATH environment variable. To compile programs that use the LablTK GUI, the directory where the libraries tk83.lib and tcl83.lib were installed (by the Tcl/Tk installer) must be added to the library search path in the LIB environment variable. E.g. if Tcl/Tk was installed in C:\tcl, add "C:\tcl\lib" to the LIB environment variable. RECOMPILATION FROM THE SOURCES: You will need the following software components to perform the recompilation: - Windows NT, 2000, or XP. - Cygwin: http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/ - TCL/TK version 8.3 (see above). Do *not* install the standalone distribution of MinGW, nor the companion MSYS tools: these have problems with long command lines. Instead, use the version of MinGW that is installed along with Cygwin. Start a Cygwin shell and unpack the source distribution (ocaml-X.YZ.tar.gz) with "tar xzf". Change to the top-level directory of the OCaml distribution. Then, do cp config/m-nt.h config/m.h cp config/s-nt.h config/s.h cp config/Makefile.mingw config/Makefile Then, edit config/Makefile as needed, following the comments in this file. Normally, the only variables that need to be changed are PREFIX where to install everything TK_ROOT where TCL/TK was installed Finally, use "make -f Makefile.nt" to build the system, e.g. make -f Makefile.nt world make -f Makefile.nt bootstrap make -f Makefile.nt opt make -f Makefile.nt opt.opt make -f Makefile.nt install NOTES: * Libraries available in this port: "num", "str", "threads", "graphics", "labltk", and large parts of "unix". * The replay debugger is not supported. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Cygwin port of Objective Caml --------------------------------- REQUIREMENTS: This port requires the Cygwin environment from Cygnus/RedHat, which is freely available at: http://www.cygwin.com/ This port runs under all versions of MS Windows supported by Cygwin. INSTALLATION: We do not distribute binaries for this port, but they can be found in the Cygwin distribution (use the Setup tool from Cygwin and select the OCaml packages). Alternatively, recompile from the source distribution. RECOMPILATION FROM THE SOURCES: Just follow the instructions for Unix machines given in the file INSTALL. NOTES: The libraries available in this port are "num", "str", "threads", "unix" and "labltk". "graph" is not available. The replay debugger is supported.