RE: [PATCH 2/2] tools/ocaml: Default to useful build output

[Paul Durrant <xadimgnik@xxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Xen-devel <xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of 
> Christian Lindig
> Sent: 20 July 2020 09:39
> To: Elliott Mitchell <ehem+xen@xxxxxxx>; xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@xxxxxxxxxx>; Edwin Torok 
> <edvin.torok@xxxxxxxxxx>; wl@xxxxxxx;
> dave@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] tools/ocaml: Default to useful build output
> 
> 
> 
> > Time for a bit of controversy.
> 
> OCaml outside Xen has moved to a different model of building based on dune 
> which is fast, declarative
> and reliable. The OCaml xenstore is stagnating because nobody with OCaml 
> experience wants to touch it
> anymore.

It is still the default. Would you suggest that we change this and make C 
xenstored the default for 4.15, deprecating oxenstored
with a view to subsequently purging it from the tree in the 4.16 dev cycle?

  Paul

> It would be beneficial for the health of the OCaml xenstore to split it out 
> such that it
> could be worked on independently. You might argue that Make is still 
> appropriate for building OCaml
> projects but the OCaml community has moved through several build systems, 
> starting from Make, and
> learned the hard way that this is not an easy problem. After years of 
> more-or-less successful build
> system the consensus is that dune is right one and it has resulted in 
> combination with the Opam
> package manager the ecosystem to flourish. Alternatively, it would be 
> possible to move OCaml xenstore
> to dune within the Xen tree but it would create a dependency on it.
> 
> -- C