Creating a ReasonML Native App: Building and Running

This post is part of a series. Related posts:

Creating a ReasonML Native App: What We Are Building
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Installing, Editing, Configuring
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Command Line Arguments
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Configuration Files
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Curses Terminal Interface
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Python Plugins
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Files I/Os
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Native Promises
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Web Requests
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Shell Commands
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Handling CSV Files
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Native JSON Handling
Creating a ReasonML Native App: Memoizing DNS queries

This is by far the most boring piece of this whole endeavor.

Unfortunately, as we accumulate years of experience, old habits accrete on the programmer and tools such as Make become an integral part of our fossilized identity. You will have to forgive me for my use of Makefiles!

Our Makefile will contain targets for building release binaries for MacOS and Linux as well as preparing our system for Curses bindings.

Our build targets are the simplest. Since I am building on MacOS, the build target will be run both natively and in a docker container to “cross-compile” a Linux version:

build:
        jbuilder build

release: releases/reasonable-fidelity-macos releases/reasonable-fidelity-linux

releases/reasonable-fidelity-macos:
        @echo "Storing macos release in releases/" && \
        cp _build/default/src/main.exe releases/reasonable-fidelity-macos

releases/reasonable-fidelity-linux:
        @echo "Storing linux release in releases/" && \
        docker cp ubuntu-headless:/home/chris/reasonable-fidelity/_build/default/src/main.exe releases/reasonable-fidelity-linux

Our use of jbuilder should be a pretty clear indicator that we are working squarely in an OCaml tooling environment.

Running our compiled binaries while under development is as simple as:

run: build
        ./_build/install/default/bin/reasonable-fidelity run

The remainder of the Makefile is dedicated to making sure we have working Curses bindings:

CURSES_PKG_NAME=ocaml-curses-1.0.3.ogunden1.tar.gz

prepare_curses: prepare_tools ocaml-curses-1.0.3 ocaml-curses-1.0.3/patched curses_howto

prepare_tools:
ifeq (,$(shell which curl))
ifeq (,$(shell which wget2))
        @echo "\n# Please, install curl or wget #\n"
        exit 1
else
        $(eval getter := wget)
endif
else
        $(eval getter := curl -O)
endif
ifeq (,$(shell which autoreconf))
        @echo "\n# Please, install autoconf/autoreconf #\n"
        exit 1
endif
ifeq (,$(shell which make))
        @echo "\n# Please, install make and build essential #\n"
        exit 1
endif

ocaml-curses-1.0.3:
        @echo "\n# Downloading curses source code file\n" && \
        $(getter) http://ocaml.phauna.org/distfiles/$(CURSES_PKG_NAME) && \
        tar zxvf $(CURSES_PKG_NAME) && \
        rm $(CURSES_PKG_NAME)

ocaml-curses-1.0.3/patched:
        @echo "\n# Patching curses source code file\n" && \
        cd ocaml-curses-1.0.3 && \
        autoreconf && \
        configure --enable-widec && \
        sed -i '/if test -n "$$TERM_H_STRING"/i   TERM_H_STRING="<term.h>"' configure && \
        touch patched

curses_howto:
        @echo "\nIf you are using this patched curses version\n(all the patch does is lie about 'term.h')" && \
        echo "then do not forget to:\n\n    cd ocaml-curses-1.0.3\n    make all opt install\n"