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Sand dunes with smooth, curved ridges.

Thu, 26 Sep 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Introducing Dune: The Essential Build System for OCaml Developers

One of the first tools you'll encounter when adopting OCaml is Dune, OCaml's official build system. Understanding what Dune is and how it serves you is key to crafting everything from a small project to maintaining large-scale codebases. So let's dive in! Learn how Dune makes development easier and …

Christine Rose

Technical Writer

Four people rowing on a river, trees in background.

Tue, 24 Sep 2024

#eio #interview #ocaml

Summer of Internships: Projects From the OCaml Compiler Team

We have had the pleasure of hosting several interns in the compiler team this past year. Their projects have tackled varied and challenging tasks touching on different aspects of compiler development, ranging from modularising the observability tool Olly to creating eBPF-based kernel-side performanc…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Person juggling balls, wearing headphones, backpack.

Thu, 19 Sep 2024

#eio #interview #ocaml

Eio From a User's Perspective: An Interview With Simon Grondin

Are you curious about Eio but not sure what to expect? Eio is an effects-based direct-style concurrency library for OCaml 5. I recently spoke with Simon Grondin from Asemio about his personal experience using the I/O library Eio. He was kind enough to share the good and the bad and give me insight i…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Purple backlit computer keyboard, angled view.

Tue, 17 Sep 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Introducing the `odoc` Cheatsheet: Your Handy Guide to OCaml Documentation

For developers diving into the OCaml ecosystem, one of the essential tools you'll encounter is odoc. Whether you're a seasoned OCaml programmer or just starting out, understanding how to generate and navigate documentation efficiently is crucial. This is where odoc comes in, OCaml's official documen…

Christine Rose

Technical Writer

Aerial view of parked trailers in a parking lot.

Wed, 11 Sep 2024

#compiler #ocaml

Feature Parity Series: Compaction is Back!

Compaction is a feature that rearranges OCaml values in memory to free up space, which can then be returned to the operating system. In the OCaml 5.2 release, the technique returns to the OCaml Garbage Collector for the first time since its removal in the 5.0 multicore update. This is part one of ou…

Sadiq Jaffer

Nick Barnes

Principal Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Camel close-up with reins in sandy environment.

Thu, 05 Sep 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Easy Debugging for OCaml With LLDB

If you’re just getting started with OCaml, you may be wondering how to effectively debug your code when things go wrong. Fortunately, OCaml's ecosystem has evolved, offering modern tools that make debugging a more approachable task. Tarides engineer Tim McGilchrist recently wrote a blog post that …

Christine Rose

Technical Writer

Yellow magnifying glass and spheres on orange background.

Tue, 03 Sep 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Getting Specific: Announcing the Gospel and Ortac Projects

Part of the benefit of open-source development is the opportunity to collaborate on projects across traditional organisational boundaries, such as academia and industry. Tarides is part of a larger effort to develop a behavioural specification language and associated tooling for OCaml. The project c…

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Nicolas Osborne

Senior Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Sunrise over Milan Cathedral, statue in plaza.

Fri, 30 Aug 2024

#events #functional-programming #ocaml

The Biggest Functional Programming Conference of the Year: What are we Bringing to ICFP?

Feeling fashionable? Milan is calling! ICFP 2024 will be held in the Italian fashion capital from 2-7 September, and there is something there for everyone to enjoy. The ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming is a yearly highlight with various keynotes, tutorials, and tracks t…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Smiling llamas, colorful rings, code, planets, stars.

Wed, 28 Aug 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Project-Wide Occurrences: A New Navigation Feature for OCaml 5.2 Users

With the release of merlin-lib 5.1-502 and associated ocaml-lsp-server, we brought a new, exciting feature to OCaml's editor tooling: project-wide occurrences. The traditional "occurrences" query in Merlin modes, named "Find All References" in LSP-based mode, was used to only return results in the a…

Ulysse Gérard

Principal Software Engineer

Various hand tools organized on a wooden wall rack.

Wed, 21 Aug 2024

#multicore #ocaml

How TSan Makes OCaml Better: Data Races Caught and Fixed

Parallel programming opens up brand-new possibilities. Using multiple cores means that users can benefit from powerful OCaml features (like formal proofs and high security) while enjoying greater performance, enabling them to improve their services or projects. However, introducing such a significan…

Olivier Nicole

Senior Software Engineer

FB

Senior Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Blue screen with error text, geometric shapes around.

Thu, 01 Aug 2024

#cybersecurity #functional-programming #memory-safety

Monoculture of Insecurity: How CrowdStrike's Outage Exposes the Risks of Unchecked Complexity in Cybersecurity

A seismic event in the IT world, everyone is talking about the CrowdStrike update that caused global chaos earlier this month. There are many great articles and blog posts dissecting the event and suggesting ways to avoid a repeat. Rather than join our voice to the chorus and explain how a small cha…

Miklos Tomka

Head Consulting Services

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Seven bulbs, one yellow lit; a hand pulls it.

Wed, 24 Jul 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Creating the SyntaxDocumentation Command - Part 3: VSCode Platform Extension

In the final installment of our series on the SyntaxDocumentation command, we delve into its integration within the OCaml VSCode Platform extension. Building on our previous discussions about Merlin and OCaml LSP, this article explores how to make SyntaxDocumentation an opt-in feature in the popular…

Pizie Dust

Software Engineer

Laptop with code, orange mug, lamp, and shelf.

Wed, 17 Jul 2024

#devtools #ocaml

OCaml Compiler Manual HTML Generation

In order to avoid long, confusing URLs on the OCaml Manual pages, we set out to create a solution that shortens these URLs, including section references, and contains the specific version. The result improves readability and user experience. This article outlines the motivation behind these changes …

Shakthi Kannan

Senior Software Engineer

Race car with pit crew, helmets, and equipment.

Wed, 10 Jul 2024

#multicore #ocaml #windows

Deep Dive: Optimising Multicore OCaml for Windows

We love hosting internships. It is rewarding to potentially facilitate someone’s first foray into the OCaml ecosystem, helping them establish a hopefully life-long foothold in the world of open-source programming. It is also a great opportunity to get new perspectives on existing issues. Fresh eye…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Blue network lines and dots on dark background.

Wed, 03 Jul 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Introducing Olly: Providing Observability Tools for OCaml 5

It might be tempting to think that we can write code that works perfectly the first time around, but in reality optimisation and troubleshooting forms a big part of programming. However, there are more and less productive (and frustrating!) ways of problem solving. Having the right tools to guide yo…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Hands stacked together, colorful sleeves visible.

Wed, 26 Jun 2024

#community #ocaml

Enhancing the OCaml.org Community Page: Boosting UX and UI Based on User Research

In March, the OCaml.org team at Tarides embarked on a mission to enhance the OCaml.org community pages. After engaging with the OCaml community, we identified several areas for improvement. Our goal was to boost the community's usability and visibility, ensuring it supported a wider audience and pro…

Claire Vandenberghe

Claire Vandenberghe

UX/UI Designer

Three workers in orange harnessed on glass building.

Wed, 19 Jun 2024

#compiler #ocaml

Keeping Up With the Compiler: How we Help Maintain the OCaml Language

Not all of our projects have a definite end: a grand culmination of effort and time where we pop champagne and set off fireworks (which is, of course, how we celebrate most of the time). Indeed, providing ongoing support for the OCaml ecosystem is one of our biggest priorities, and it means that we …

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

UFO hovering over the ocean at sunset.

Wed, 12 Jun 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Creating the SyntaxDocumentation Command - Part 2: OCaml LSP

In the first part of this series, Creating the SyntaxDocumentation Command - Part 1: Merlin, we explored how to create a new command in Merlin, particularly the SyntaxDocumentation command. In this continuation, we will be looking at the amazing OCaml LSP project and how we have integrated our Synta…

Pizie Dust

Software Engineer

CPU chip hovering over a motherboard.

Wed, 05 Jun 2024

#cybersecurity #mirageos #ocaml

Secure From the Ground Up: Introducing the FIDES Project Combining RISC-V and MirageOS

We entrust some of our most sensitive information to an invisible stream of information flowing back and forth across the globe. Cybersecurity concerns everyone, and Tarides is developing secure, lasting, and high-performing solutions for a diverse set of users. This post introduces you to cutting-e…

KC Sivaramakrishnan

KC Sivaramakrishnan

CTO

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Shattered glass pieces on a black background.

Wed, 29 May 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Effective ML Through Merlin's Destruct Command

The Merlin server and OCaml LSP server, two closely related OCaml language servers, enhance productivity with features like autocompletion and type inference. Their lesser known, yet highly useful destruct command simplifies the use of pattern matching by generating exhaustive match statements, as w…

Xavier Van de Woestyne

Xavier Van de Woestyne

Senior Software Engineer

Wed, 22 May 2024

#ocaml #windows

Launching the First-Class Windows Project

We want to make learning and using OCaml easier for more people. Realising this goal involves expanding OCaml support to where the users are and making their experience smooth and hassle-free. It is generally accepted that the current state of OCaml on Windows is not comparable to other popular plat…

Sudha Parimala

Senior Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Silhouette of camel, solar eclipse, desert landscape.

Wed, 15 May 2024

#compiler #ocaml

The OCaml 5.2 Release: Features and Fixes!

There has been a new release of OCaml! The 5.2 release brings several new features, along with improvements, optimisations, and bug fixes. New features include compaction, ThreadSanitizer, and restored support for compiling to the POWER architeture on OCaml, plus other crucial changes that prepare t…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Wed, 08 May 2024

#ocaml #windows

How to Setup OCaml on Windows with WSL

The stable opam 2.2 and a fully Windows compatible ecosystem of OCaml libraries and tools are getting closer every month. That's extremely exciting! With opam 2.2, Windows users will be able to use OCaml directly and natively without extra set-up or workarounds. Everyone is excited about this future…

Pizie Dust

Software Engineer

House with a pool, plants, and a chicken in a yard.

Wed, 01 May 2024

#community #events #ocaml

We Host Our First OCaml Retreat in India!

Hacking retreats are great ways for programmers to connect, explore new ideas, and learn from each other. One of the most popular OCaml retreats is the much-loved Mirage retreat, organised annually in Morocco. But for us OCaml enthusiasts located elsewhere, the journey can be challenging (not to men…

Sudha Parimala

Senior Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Red engine components with cables and hoses.

Wed, 24 Apr 2024

#multicore #ocaml

Under the Hood: Developing Multicore Property-Based Tests for OCaml 5

In 2022, Multicore OCaml became reality. Programming on multiple threads brings new possibilities, but also new complexities. In order to foster confidence in OCaml 5 and retain OCaml's reputation as a trustworthy and memory-safe platform, Tarides has developed multicoretests: Two property-based tes…

Jan Midtgaard

Principal Software Engineer

Abstract blue and white light streaks on black background.

Wed, 17 Apr 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Creating the SyntaxDocumentation Command - Part 1: Merlin

OCaml development has never been more enchanting, thanks to Merlin – the wizard of the editor realm. The magic of Merlin is something that makes programming in OCaml a very nice experience. By Merlin, I don't mean the old gray-haired, staff-bearing magic guy. I'm talking about the editor service t…

Pizie Dust

Software Engineer

Open silver padlock with digital circuit pattern.

Wed, 10 Apr 2024

#multicore #ocaml

Multicore Testing Tools: DSCheck Pt 2

Welcome to part two! If you haven't already, check out part one, where we introduce DSCheck and share one of its uses in a naive counter implementation. This post will give you a behind-the-scenes look at how DSCheck works its magic, including the theory behind it and how to write a test for our nai…

Carine Morel

Senior Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

People's hands, laptop on glass table.

Wed, 03 Apr 2024

#ocaml

Updates to OCaml.org's Learn Section: Enhancing UI and UX

Over the past year, the OCaml.org team has been hard at work addressing user feedback to make the OCaml.org Learn section more accessible and organised in order to facilitate learning OCaml and enriching the overall OCaml experience. In 2023, I joined the OCaml.org team as a UX /UI Designer. One of …

Claire Vandenberghe

Claire Vandenberghe

UX/UI Designer

Laptops with shield icons in a circle.

Wed, 27 Mar 2024

#cybersecurity #mirageos #ocaml

NetHSM: Bringing Open Source to the World of Hardware Security Modules

Nitrokey is one of the world’s foremost open-source hardware security companies. They develop IT security hardware for data encryption, decryption, and signing, including key and user authentication. After eight years of development, they recently released the first fully open-source Hardware Secu…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Virgile Robles

Principal Software Engineer

Containers, cranes, ships, ocean, and industrial area.

Wed, 20 Mar 2024

#eio #multicore #ocaml

Eio 1.0 Release: Introducing a new Effects-Based I/O Library for OCaml

The OCaml 5 update brought much-anticipated support for programming on multiple cores. It also introduced support for concurrency via effect handlers – one of the first mainstream languages to do so. This significant update has had profound performance and UX implications, propelling OCaml into ne…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Thomas Leonard

Principal Software Engineer

Anil Madhavapeddy

Anil Madhavapeddy

Advisor

Text "INDIAFOSS" with green hands holding tools.

Wed, 13 Mar 2024

#community #events #open-source

My experience at IndiaFOSS 2023: Community, Workshop, and Talks

There are plenty of exciting computer programming events happening in India, including the 5 day OCaml retreat that Tarides is hosting in Auroville this week – look out for future posts on that! Another great (and bigger!) event is the annual free and open source software conference IndiaFOSS orga…

Sudha Parimala

Senior Software Engineer

Crumpled paper and paper airplane on blue background.

Thu, 07 Mar 2024

#cybersecurity #memory-safety #ocaml

A Time for Change: Our Response to the White House Cybersecurity Press Release

As seasoned proponents of safety-by-design, we were pleased to see the February 26th White House press release titled "Future Software Should Be Memory Safe." The accompanying report touches on important topics, most significantly regarding the critical importance of memory safety. The U.S. governme…

Thomas Gazagnaire

Thomas Gazagnaire

CEO

Person with magnifying glass, striped suit, outdoors.

Wed, 28 Feb 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Two Major Improvements in odoc: Introducing Search Engine Integration

In the world of OCaml documentation generation, there have been two significant enhancements that promise to make navigating OCaml documentation easier and more efficient. These improvements are divided into two distinct but interrelated components: changes in odoc itself and improvements in a searc…

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Paul-Elliot Anglès d'Auriac

Senior Software Engineer

Christine Rose

Technical Writer

City skyline with iconic tower, pinkish sky.

Wed, 21 Feb 2024

#events #functional-programming #ocaml

My Experience With Tarides at ICFP 2023!

ICFP 2024 will be upon us sooner than you might think! The call for papers closes on the 28th of February, and I wish everyone submitting good luck. Hopefully I will see you around Milan this upcoming September (at the OCaml Workshop, of course!) and to stave off your ICFP cravings until then, enjoy…

Shakthi Kannan

Senior Software Engineer

Blue padlock on abstract brown and orange blocks.

Wed, 14 Feb 2024

#multicore #ocaml

Multicore Testing Tools: DSCheck Pt 1

Reaping the plentiful benefits of parallel programming requires the careful management of the intricacies that come with it. Tarides played a significant part in making OCaml Multicore a reality, and we have continued to work on supporting tools that make parallel programming in OCaml as seamless as…

Carine Morel

Senior Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Split web design interfaces, light and dark modes.

Wed, 07 Feb 2024

#community #ocaml

Improving OCaml.org to Provide an Engaging UX and Trusted User Resources

The OCaml.org team, which includes members from Tarides, have been working hard to improve OCaml.org. In the first half of 2023, our primary focus was on the much-needed overhaul of OCaml.org's documentation and overall UX Design. We aspired to enhance user experience and accessibility throughout th…

Christine Rose

Technical Writer

Control panel with screens, buttons, papers, pens.

Wed, 31 Jan 2024

#devtools #multicore #ocaml

Are Your Programs Doing What You Think They're Doing? Introducing Monitoring Tools for Multicore OCaml

As programs grow in size and complexity, they become more challenging to optimise. When the cause of a particular performance issue can theoretically be attributed to multiple sources, developers need concrete data to drive their decision making and avoid time-consuming guesswork. As you can imagine…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Curved pink and orange lines on black background.

Wed, 24 Jan 2024

#mirageos #ocaml

MirageOS: Designing a More Resilient Networking Stack With µTCP

There is no room for complacency in software development! In the OCaml ecosystem, improvements are continuously introduced to optimise existing workflows, introduce new features, and boost performance. MirageOS is a toolchain for creating unikernels (very small images that embed both an application …

Virgile Robles

Principal Software Engineer

Miniature figures running on circuit board chips.

Wed, 17 Jan 2024

#multicore #ocaml

What are Data Races? And do They Threaten Your Business?

Imagine you have a brand-new coffee machine. One morning, you traipse excitedly down the stairs only to discover that, alas, your appliance has turned into a potato. The next day, it turns back into a coffee machine. And so it continues: on some days, it dispenses you perfect, frothy coffee; on othe…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Shelves with stacked blue, green, yellow folders.

Wed, 10 Jan 2024

#devtools #ocaml

Meet odoc, OCaml's Documentation Generator

Effective documentation is a cornerstone of software development. It helps developers understand how to use a language, its libraries, and its tooling, which leads to more robust and maintainable code. When it comes to OCaml, odoc is the wizard behind the scenes, ensuring developers not only underst…

Christine Rose

Technical Writer

Black silhouette on bright orange circle background.

Fri, 29 Dec 2023

#mirageos #ocaml #space

Announcing the ORCHIDE Project: Powering Satellite Innovation

It has been a few months since we announced our new product for both older and newer models of satellites: SpaceOS. Since then, there have been exciting updates to the use of SpaceOS for innovative satellite applications. Tarides is thrilled to announce our partnership with several esteemed organisa…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

A camel standing and a camel calf sitting on sand.

Wed, 20 Dec 2023

#community #functional-programming #ocaml

OCaml Survey: Developers' Perception, Interest, and Perceived Barriers

Tarides is conducting a survey targeting non-OCaml programmers to learn their thoughts about this functional programming language and uncover any misconceptions surrounding it. Please take a few mintues to fill it out if you haven't yet done so. This post shows our preliminary findings based on a re…

Christine Rose

Technical Writer

Metallic chip with legs and geometric brain shape.

Thu, 14 Dec 2023

#cybersecurity #functional-programming #memory-safety

OCaml: Memory Safety and Beyond

Your choice of programming language matters. A recent press release from the US National Security Agency (NSA), in tandem with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) alongside international cybersecurity agencies, urges the adoption of memory-safe programming languages for en…

Thomas Gazagnaire

Thomas Gazagnaire

CEO

Blue lockers, text "EDUCATION CHANGES THE WORLD."

Tue, 05 Dec 2023

#community #team

International Disability Day 2023: Why It Matters

When I was in my early 20s, I developed a chronic illness that (amongst other things) has affected my mobility. Becoming disabled is an eye-opening experience, as it makes you acutely aware of two things: First, there are many ways in which society genuinely tries to help people with disabilities, a…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Two dogs on a Zoom call; left with yellow, right red.

Tue, 21 Nov 2023

#compiler #ocaml #tutorial

How to Install OCaml 5: A Video Tutorial

Have you had difficulty installing OCaml for your projects? We have created a video tutorial showing you how to use Opam to install OCaml on Linux and macOS. All you need to complete the tutorial is a computer running either Linux or macOS, and an internet connection. By the end of the tutorial you …

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

A group of 13 people smiling indoors.

Thu, 09 Nov 2023

#events #ocaml

OCaml Hacking Day in Chennai!

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a programmer in possession of a free Saturday afternoon must be in want of a good old OCaml hacking session. To address this pressing need, we recently hosted another OCaml Hacking Day event – this time at our Tarides India office in Chennai. We had a t…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Two glass prisms with rainbow light dispersion.

Wed, 01 Nov 2023

#ocaml #wasm

WebAssembly Support for OCaml: Introducing Wasm_of_Ocaml

OCaml is constantly evolving. Developers collaborate to bring support for new features, improve workflows, and resolve pain points. To this end, the OCaml-Wasm GitHub organisation was recently established. Its goal is to bring WebAssembly support to OCaml. WebAssembly, more commonly known as Wasm, i…

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

Modern library, staircases, bookshelves, people, seating.

Wed, 25 Oct 2023

#irmin #tutorial

Tutorial: Building a Browser Extension With Irmin

Irmin is a collection of OCaml libraries that makes it easy to build applications with Git-like data stores. We recently released irmin-client and irmin-server as official Irmin packages. These packages open up a new way to use Irmin by implementing a custom protocol that lets you write a client app…

IT

Horses racing with jockeys in colorful attire.

Wed, 18 Oct 2023

#multicore #ocaml

Off to the Races: Using ThreadSanitizer in OCaml

OCaml Multicore opened up a new world of performance for developers, something that Nomadic Labs has tested with great results. Rather than relying on one core to do everything, the program can take advantage of multiple cores simultaneously for a significant performance boost. With new programming …

FB

Senior Software Engineer

Olivier Nicole

Senior Software Engineer

Isabella Leandersson

Isabella Leandersson

Communications Officer

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