Thoughts on the National Data Library and private research data / Feb 2025
Over the past year, Sadiq Jaffer and I have been getting an object lesson in how the modern Internet handles researcher access to data, as we've been downloading tens of millions of research papers towards our Conservation Evidence project. This is legally possible via our institutional subscriptions that give us license to fulltexts, and the incredibly helpful head of electronic services at the University Library who wields encyclopedic knowledge of each of our agreements with the hundreds of publishers out there. My thoughts on this then segwayed into recent conversations I've been having about the emerging National Data Library and also with the UK Wildlife Trusts... […2532 words]
OCaml.org: recapping 2022 and queries on the Fediverse (via OCaml.org) / Jan 2023
I recap the OCaml community progress in 2022, which covers a number of bases ranging from the release of OCaml 5.0, the launch of a new website with integrated documentation for 20000+ packages, prototyping new developer workflows that are better integrated into editors, and the launch of ActivityPub based services such as https://watch.ocaml.org.
OCaml Multicore Monthly: post merge activites (via OCaml.org) / Feb 2022
After we got the massive OCaml 5.0 pull request merged, we've taken some time to consolidate the trunk branch of OCaml and start down the release path towards getting OCaml 5.0 out of the door.
Decentralised Capability-based Code Collaboration using Matrix / Jan 2022
This is an idea proposed as a Cambridge Computer Science Part II project, and has been completed by Samuel Wedgwood. It was supervised by Anil Madhavapeddy.
In 2005, due to licensing disputes, the team behind Linux parted ways with their proprietary source management tool BitKeeper, and needed a new solution. This prompted the development of Git, an open-source decentralised version control system (DVCS), which was soon used to manage the source code of Linux. Contributions were submitted as patch files, which contained just the differences that the contribution made, to an email list, which were reviewed and applied to the central Git repository for Linux.
Git grew in popularity and other projects started using it to manage their source code. Then, in 2008, the GitHub.com platform launched, providing Git repository hosting alongside other project management tools. Notably, GitHub facilitates "pull requests", where contributors fork the repository, make changes to their fork, and then request that their changes be merged back into the central repository. As of 2023, GitHub hosts over 364 million repositories and is the most popular version control platform for both personal and professional use, followed by GitLab and BitBucket, which are all centralised version control platforms (CVCPs). […386 words]
OCaml Multicore Monthly: code review complete with Inria (via OCaml.org) / Dec 2021
We've been working hard on OCaml multicore support, and went over to Paris to sit down with some core developers from Inria and work through code review of our proposed patches.
What is an Operating System? (via Signals and Threads) / Nov 2021
I am the latest person to feature on the first season of the Signals and Threads podcast hosted by Yaron Minsky (you may recognise him as my co-author on Real World OCaml).
Anil Madhavapeddy is an academic, author, engineer, entrepreneur, and OCaml aficionado. In this episode, Anil and Ron consider the evolving role of operating systems, security on the internet, and the pending arrival (at last!) of OCaml 5.0. They also discuss using Raspberry Pis to fight climate change; the programming inspiration found in British pubs and on Moroccan beaches; and the time Anil went to a party, got drunk, and woke up with a job working on the Mars Polar Lander. -- Signals and Threads
I think I might be the first non- Jane Street person to be on their podcast! Quite the honour.
OCaml Multicore Monthly: effect handling confirmed for 5.0 (via OCaml.org) / Oct 2021
We're making steady progress on getting multicore support merged into OCaml, including some great developer meetings where we achieved consensus with the core team to include support for effect handlers in the 5.0 release.
Decentralised tech on Recoil / Sep 2021
Nick Ludlam and I have self-hosted recoil.org since around 1996, typically for email and web. These days, there are a number of interesting software stacks around decentralised communication that we deploy. This note keeps track of them. […458 words]
State of the OCaml Platform 2020 / Aug 2020
Talk on the state of the OCaml Platform in 2020
OCaml Multicore Monthly: systhreads compatibility merged (via OCaml.org) / Aug 2020
The big advance in the multicore OCaml branch is that we restored compatibility with the traditional OCaml systhreads. This in turn means that many existing software packages just work out of the box on the new runtime.
Big news this month is that the systhreads compatibility support PR has been merged, which means that Dune (and other users of the Thread module) can compile out of the box. You can now compile the multicore OCaml fork conveniently using the new opam compiler plugin (see announcement). -- me, on the discussion forum
OCaml Multicore Monthly: starting upstream to OCaml (via OCaml.org) / Jan 2020
We started the process of upstreaming our multicore OCaml branch to mainline OCaml, and so I started posting regular updates to the community forum.
The most common question we get is how to contribute to the overall multicore effort. As I noted last year, we are now in the process of steadily upstreaming our efforts to mainline OCaml. Therefore, the best way by far to contribute is to test for regressions or opportunities for improvements in the patches that are outstanding in the main OCaml repository. -- me, on the discussion forum
New opam repository layout for large libraries (via OCaml.org) / Nov 2018
Managing package manager constraints is getting difficult, particularly given the growth of the number of packages in the opam repository. I'm therefore laying out a new mechanism for the OCaml contributors to submit large package sets, such as those from Jane Street.
Founded Tarides and looking to hire OCaml hackers (via OCaml) / Mar 2018
I'm delighted to report that I'm helping my long-time collaborator Thomas Gazagnaire to return to his OCaml roots from Docker. He has just founded Tarides, a startup in Paris with the goal of advancing the open source OCaml ecosystem.
Founded in Paris in early 2018, Tarides helps developers and companies build secure, performant and resource-efficient network and storage services. We are using MirageOS to run applications without the overhead of a traditional operating system and Irmin to create scalable distributed applications. Tarides offers commercial support and commercial development services for companies interested to run MirageOS or Irmin as part of their technology stack. -- Thomas Gazagnaire
State of the OCaml Platform / Sep 2017
Talk on the state of the OCaml Platform
Opening discuss.ocaml.org for the community (via OCaml.org) / May 2017
I opened up a Discourse forum for the OCaml community to use, which is running successfully on https://discuss.ocaml.org. This forum thread collates the feedback and discussions about it.
Displaying the 15 most recent news items out of 35 in total (see all the items).