Introduction to OCaml PADS

What is OCaml PADS?

OCaml PADS is a data-description language embedded in OCaml using PPX extension points. It can be used to easily generate safe parsing and storing functions for ad hoc data formats. OCaml PADS is an OCaml implementation of PADS.

## Installation

OCaml PADS requires OCaml 4.03.0 or greater and a few OPAM packages.

You can get all the prerequisites by following these steps:

1. Install OPAM

2. Run the following commands in your shell:

   opam update

   opam upgrade

   opam switch 4.03.0

   eval $(opam config env)

   opam install ocamlfind oasis utop menhir core

3. Clone this repository

4. In the root of the clone, run:

   To build:

   make && make install

   To rebuild:

   make && make reinstall

   If you get errors, try

   ocamlfind remove pads

## Usage

See the sample example for a quick overview of most of the currently available PADS constructs. This example (along with any other future examples) can be run by entering the examples directory and running:

make [exName]

[exName].native

where exName should be sample to compile and run the sample example.

In the examples directory, there is a script for desugaring a PADS source file into vanilla OCaml used by running:

desugar.sh [file.ml]

There are two recommended ways to build a PADS source file using either ocamlfind or ocamlbuild (which uses ocamlfind):

ocamlfind ocamlc -thread -package pads,pads.pads_ppx -linkpkg [file.ml]

ocamlbuild -use-ocamlfind -pkgs pads.pads_ppx -tags thread,'warn(-30)' -I [project folder containing fileName.ml] [fileName].native

Where pads.pads_ppx imports the extension interpreter for PADS and the thread tag is required due to some other libraries.