[Teaching] Asking teachers: what support would you want to distribute OCaml to students ?

[David Walker]

Having a FAQ with a list of questions/how-tos and links to "answers" would
be terrific for me.  There have already been a couple of "how-tos" in this
email thread vis-a-vis setting up Merlin better.

Dave

On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 8:32 AM, Yaron Minsky <yminsky at janestreet.com> wrote:

> This seems like a great little howto.  Should we perhaps have a teaching
> FAQ on ocaml.org and put bits of advice like this in there?
>
> y
> On Dec 1, 2014 9:48 PM, "Louis Gesbert" <louis.gesbert at ocamlpro.com>
> wrote:
>
>>  On how to provide a set of libraries to install, the following is on
>> its way to the FAQ:
>>
>>
>>
>> «
>>
>> ### Easily provide a set of packages for students to install
>>
>>
>>
>> The easiest way is to create a package with your prerequisites as
>> `depends` and
>>
>> have them pin that. A quick way to host the file is to use a
>>
>> [Gist](https://gist.github.com). Create one with minimal contents and
>> listing
>>
>> your packages as dependencies -- the file name **has** to be `opam`:
>>
>>
>>
>> ```
>>
>> opam-version: "1.2"
>>
>> name: "ocaml101"
>>
>> version: "0.1"
>>
>> maintainer: "Louis Gesbert <louis.gesbert at ocamlpro.com>"
>>
>> depends: [ "menhir" { = "20140422" }
>>
>> "merlin" { >= "2" }
>>
>> "ocp-indent"
>>
>> "ocp-index" ]
>>
>> ```
>>
>>
>>
>> Save that and get the `HTTPS clone URL`. All that is needed then is to
>> run:
>>
>>
>>
>> ```shell
>>
>> $ opam pin add ocaml101 <HTTPS clone URL>
>>
>> ```
>>
>>
>>
>> Furthermore, `opam update` will then pick up any modification you made to
>> the gist.
>>
>> »
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Louis
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Le jeudi 27 novembre 2014, 18:23:40 Louis Gesbert a écrit :
>>
>> > Thanks for the feedback!
>>
>> >
>>
>> > > Things, I would love:
>>
>> > > - being able to give them a sort of meta-package requiring a set of
>> libraries
>>
>> > It's possible to define one within a repository. Or, more directly, it
>> should work to host an archive containing an `opam` file somewhere, and
>> then have them run `opam pin URL`.
>>
>> > I'll check if that works and document it somewhere (OPAM FAQ?) if that
>> turns out to be useful.
>>
>> >
>>
>> > > - perhaps some support to get access to the sources (perhaps it
>> exists but I haven’t seen it), sometimes I push them into looking at the
>> code of the libraries and they need to get it (or browse github). Why not
>> also the doc?
>>
>> > OPAM 1.2 added the `opam source <package>` command. Damn useful :)
>>
>> >
>>
>> > Hope that helps!
>>
>> >
>>
>> >
>>
>> > _______________________________________________
>>
>> > Teaching mailing list
>>
>> > Teaching at lists.ocaml.org
>>
>> > http://lists.ocaml.org/listinfo/teaching
>>
>> >
>>
>>
>>
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