thomashuet / js_of_ocaml Goto Github PK

=== Overview ===

Js_of_ocaml is a compiler from OCaml bytecode to Javascript.  It makes
it possible to write OCaml programs that run on Web browsers.  It is
easy to install as it works with an existing installation of OCaml,
with no need to recompile any library.  It comes with bindings for a
large part of the browser APIs.  According to our benchmarks, the
generated programs runs typically faster than with the OCaml bytecode
interpreter.  We believe this compiler will prove much easier to
maintain than a retargeted OCaml compiler, as the bytecode provides a
very stable API.

=== Requirements ===

  * Findlib
  * Lwt (**version 2.3.0** at least)
  * Menhir

  [optionnal]
  * deriving (**version 0.5** at least
                      see: https://github.com/ocsigen/deriving)

=== Installation ===

  * edit {{{Makefile.conf}}} to change the default configuration
  * run {{{make}}} to compile
  * run {{{make install}}} as root to install the compiler
    and its libraries
  * run {{{make uninstall}}} as root to uninstall them

You can run {{{make toplevel}}} if you want to build a Web-based OCaml
toplevel as well.

=== Usage ===

Your program must first be compiled using the OCaml bytecode compiler
{{{ocamlc}}}.  Javascript bindings are provided by the {{{js_of_ocaml}}} package.
The syntax extension is provided by {{{js_of_ocaml.syntax}}} package.

{{{
      ocamlfind ocamlc -package js_of_ocaml \
          -syntax camlp4o -package js_of_ocaml.syntax \
          -linkpkg -o cubes.byte cubes.ml
}}}

Then, run the {{{js_of_ocaml}}} compiler to produce Javascript code:

{{{
      js_of_ocaml cubes.byte
}}}

=== Features ===

The whole OCaml standard library should be supported, except for
input/ouput channels, weak references, and most functions of the
Sys module.  Extra libraries such as Bigarray, Unix, Thread or Str
are not supported.

Tail call is not optimized in general.  However, self recursive
functions (when the tail calls are to the function itself) are
compiled using a loop.

Recursive modules are not supported at the moment.

Data representation differs from the usual one, for performance
reasons.  Most notably, integers are 32 bits (rather than 31 bits or
63 bits) and floats are not boxed.  As a consequence, marshalling,
polymorphic comparison, and hashing functions can yield results
different from usual:
  * marshalling of floats is not supported (unmarshalling works);
  * the polymorphic hash function will not give the same results on
    datastructures containing floats;
  * these functions may be more prone to stack overflow, as the
    Javascript stack is small.

=== Contents of the distribution ===

|    LICENSE     |   license and copyright notice                   |
|    README      |   this file                                      |
|    compiler/   |   compiler                                       |
|    examples/   |   small examples                                 |
|    lib/        |   library for interfacing with Javascript APIs   |
|    runtime/    |   runtime system                                 |