Instructions

• Install opam (these instructions assume opam version 2+). If you are using Windows, it is highly recommended that you use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). More detailed instructions on how to install opam on WSL can be found here
• Create a new switch (you can replace "homework" with any switch name you'd like):

opam init
opam switch create homework 4.09.0
eval $(opam env)

• Install dependencies:

opam install core dune merlin ounit2

• Build with make. This will create symlinks to four binaries. They are:

  • while: a While interpreter
  • w3a: a While3addr interpreter
  • compile: a While to While3addr compiler
  • analyze: analyzes a While3addr file (using your analysis) and outputs the results All of these binaries take input on stdin and output on stdout (i.e., you can run a While program by running ./while < program.while, not by passing a file as input).

• Test with make test. This will run any test cases placed in test/test_analysis.ml. There are a few test cases already provided in the test_analysis.ml file to help you get started with testing your code, and we highly suggest that you add more!

Handin

Handin only src/analysis/df.ml to Gradescope to run your code against a set of held out test cases.

Resources

• You might be interested in reading Adam Chlipala's overview of the philosophic differences between OCaml and SML: http://adam.chlipala.net/mlcomp/
• This page has a nice side-by-side comparison of the syntax of SML and OCaml: https://people.mpi-sws.org/~rossberg/sml-vs-ocaml.html
• We are using the Core library maintained by Jane Street as it is more feature-rich than the OCaml standard library. The API documentation on that page should be useful.
• If you're using Vim or Emacs, Merlin is a very useful tool that adds features like autocompletion and function signature lookup. The Merlin GitHub page will help you get set up.
• If you're using Emacs, Tuareg mode is a good editing mode.
• OCaml is a compiled or interpreted language, so it can be run in a REPL. You can use the standard OCaml REPL, but we recommend UTop, which can be installed with opam install utop.
• The official OCaml site has a lot of resources for learning OCaml.
• Real World OCaml is a great book for learning OCaml and is available free online.