Thicket data repository for the EEG
anil.recoil.org
1{
2 "id": "https://anil.recoil.org/notes/announcing-ocaml-labs",
3 "title": "Announcing OCaml Labs",
4 "link": "https://anil.recoil.org/notes/announcing-ocaml-labs",
5 "updated": "2012-10-19T00:00:00",
6 "published": "2012-10-19T00:00:00",
7 "summary": "<p>I\u2019m very excited to announce <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/projects/ocamllabs\">OCaml Labs</a>, the latest project\nto hit the Cambridge Computer Lab. As anyone that hangs out near me\nprobably realises, I very much enjoy functional programming. My weapon\nof choice tends to be <a href=\"http://www.ocaml-lang.org\">OCaml</a>, as it\ncondenses <a href=\"http://events.inf.ed.ac.uk/Milner2012/X_Leroy-html5-mp4.html\">decades of\nresearch</a>\ninto a pragmatic blend of functional, imperative and object-oriented\nprogramming styles. What\u2019s perhaps less well known are the steady\n<a href=\"http://www.ocaml-lang.org/companies.html\">inroads</a> that OCaml has been\nmaking into mission-critical areas of industry. At <a href=\"http://ocaml.janestreet.com\">Jane\nStreet</a>, billions of dollars of\ntransactions are routed through a huge ML code-base that is designed to\ncatch bugs <a href=\"http://vimeo.com/14313378\">at compile-time</a>. At\n<a href=\"http://github.com/xen-org/xen-api\">Citrix</a>, the Xen management\ntoolstack that powers\n<a href=\"http://blogs.citrix.com/2012/10/09/one-in-a-million/\">millions</a> of\nhosts in the cloud is <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/2010-icfp-xen.pdf\">largely written in\nOCaml</a>. Facebook does\nsophisticated <a href=\"https://github.com/facebook/pfff/wiki/Main\">static\nanalysis</a> using OCaml over\ntheir vast PHP codebase to close security holes.</p>\n<p>The OCaml community is small but dedicated, but there is always more to\ndo to improve the language and ecosystem. So, thanks to a generous\nplatform grant from <a href=\"http://ocaml.janestreet.com\">Jane Street</a>, we are\nlaunching a program to help with the open-source development of OCaml\nfrom Cambridge.</p>\n<p>The <em><a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/ocamllabs/\">OCaml Labs</a></em> are\nbased in the <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk\">Cambridge Computer Lab</a> and led\nmy myself, <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~am21/\">Alan Mycroft</a> and <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~iml1/\">Ian\nLeslie</a>. We\u2019re closely affiliated with\nother\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/ocamllabs/collaboration.html\">groups</a>,\nand will be:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>developing the OCaml Platform, which will bundle the official OCaml\ncompiler from INRIA with a tested set of community libraries that\nrefreshed every six months.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>working with the core OCaml team at INRIA\u2019s\n<a href=\"http://gallium.inria.fr/\">Gallium</a> group on the compiler, and with\ncommercial partners like <a href=\"http://ocamlpro.com\">OCamlPro</a> on tool\ndevelopment. OCamlPro are making some very impressive progress\nalready with the <a href=\"http://opam.ocamlpro.com\">OPAM</a> packge manager and\n<a href=\"http://www.typerex.org\">TypeRex</a> IDE helper.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>supporting the online presence with more teaching material and\ncontent. Yaron, Jason and I are working hard on a <a href=\"http://realworldocaml.org\">new\nbook</a> that will be published next year,\nand the OCaml Web team (led by <a href=\"http://ashishagarwal.org\">Ashish</a>\nand\n<a href=\"https://plus.google.com/109604597514379193052/posts\">Christophe</a>)\nhave made great progress on a <a href=\"http://www.ocaml-lang.org\">brand new\nwebsite</a> that we will move to the\n<code>ocaml.org</code> domain soon.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<h3><a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/#research-efforts\"></a>Research efforts</h3>\n<p>Of course, it is difficult to hack on a language in a void, and we also\n<em>use</em> OCaml heavily in our own research. The other half of OCaml Lab\u2019s\ngoals are more disruptive (and riskier!):</p>\n<ul>\n<li>The upcoming first beta release of <a href=\"http://openmirage.org\">Mirage</a>,\nwhich is an operating system designed for cloud and embedded\nenvironments, and is written almost entirely from the ground up in\nOCaml. The outputs of Mirage include a <a href=\"http://www.openmirage.org/blog/breaking-up-is-easy-with-opam\">large number of\nlibraries</a>\nwhich are usable separately, such as pure implementations of TCP/IP,\nDNS, SSH, DHCP and HTTP. The Xen hackers, led by <a href=\"http://dave.recoil.org\">David Scott</a>, are out in force to integrate Mirage\ninto their <a href=\"http://www.xen.org/xensummit/xs12na_talks/T2.html\">next-generation</a>\nplatform. Meanwhile, Raphael Proust is busy eliminating the <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/drafts/2012-places-limel-draft1.pdf\">garbage\ncollector</a>\nwith his cut-down \u201cLinearML\u201d variant.</li>\n<li>Working with our collaborators at the <a href=\"http://horizon.ac.uk\">Horizon\nInstitute</a> on privacy-preserving technologies\nsuch as\n<a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/2012-sigcomm-signposts-demo.pdf\">Signposts</a>\nwhich let you build and maintain your own personal clouds that\noperate <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/2011-icdcn-droplets.pdf\">autonomously</a>\nfrom the central cloud. You can read more about our <a href=\"http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/privacy-by-design/\">privacy-by-design</a> philosophy too.</li>\n<li>Extending OCaml to run on secure hardware platforms that doesn\u2019t\ncompromise on performance, using the MIPS64-based <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/ctsrd/cheri.html\">capability\nprocessor</a>\nthat is being developed at at the Lab.</li>\n<li>The <a href=\"http://www.trilogy-project.org\">Trilogy</a> was a hugely\nsuccessful EU-funded effort on future evolution of the Internet, and\nresulted in <a href=\"http://trilogy-project.org/publications/standards-contributions.html\">numerous\nRFCs</a>\non subjects such as multipath-TCP. We\u2019re partipating in the\nfollow-up (imaginatively dubbed \u201cTrilogy2\u201d), and look forward to\nworking on more structured abstractions for programming large-scale\nnetworks.</li>\n</ul>\n<h3><a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/#getting-involved\"></a>Getting involved</h3>\n<p>So, how can you get involved? We are initially advertising three\npositions for full-time developers and researchers\n(<a href=\"http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/-21662/\">junior</a> and\n<a href=\"http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/-21942/\">senior</a>) to help us get started\nwith the OCaml Platform and compiler development. These aren\u2019t\nconventional pure research jobs, and a successful candidate should enjoy\nthe open-source development cycle (you retain your own copyright for\nyour own projects). The Computer Lab offers a pretty unique environment:\na friendly, non-hierarchical group in a beautiful city, and some of the\nbest faculty and students you could hope to hang out with.</p>\n<p>And finally, there is a longer lead time on <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/admissions/phd/\">applying for\nPhDs</a>, but this is a great time\nto get involved. When I started at the Lab in 2002, a little project\ncalled <a href=\"http://xen.org\">Xen</a> was just kicking off, and many of us had a\nwild (and oft great) time riding that wave. Get in touch with myself,\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~am21/\">Alan</a>,\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~iml1/\">Ian</a> or\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jac22/\">Jon</a> soon if you are interested in\napplying! There\u2019s some more information available on the <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/ocamllabs/collaboration.html\">OCaml Labs\npages</a>\nabout options.</p>",
8 "content": "<p>I\u2019m very excited to announce <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/projects/ocamllabs\">OCaml Labs</a>, the latest project\nto hit the Cambridge Computer Lab. As anyone that hangs out near me\nprobably realises, I very much enjoy functional programming. My weapon\nof choice tends to be <a href=\"http://www.ocaml-lang.org\">OCaml</a>, as it\ncondenses <a href=\"http://events.inf.ed.ac.uk/Milner2012/X_Leroy-html5-mp4.html\">decades of\nresearch</a>\ninto a pragmatic blend of functional, imperative and object-oriented\nprogramming styles. What\u2019s perhaps less well known are the steady\n<a href=\"http://www.ocaml-lang.org/companies.html\">inroads</a> that OCaml has been\nmaking into mission-critical areas of industry. At <a href=\"http://ocaml.janestreet.com\">Jane\nStreet</a>, billions of dollars of\ntransactions are routed through a huge ML code-base that is designed to\ncatch bugs <a href=\"http://vimeo.com/14313378\">at compile-time</a>. At\n<a href=\"http://github.com/xen-org/xen-api\">Citrix</a>, the Xen management\ntoolstack that powers\n<a href=\"http://blogs.citrix.com/2012/10/09/one-in-a-million/\">millions</a> of\nhosts in the cloud is <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/2010-icfp-xen.pdf\">largely written in\nOCaml</a>. Facebook does\nsophisticated <a href=\"https://github.com/facebook/pfff/wiki/Main\">static\nanalysis</a> using OCaml over\ntheir vast PHP codebase to close security holes.</p>\n<p>The OCaml community is small but dedicated, but there is always more to\ndo to improve the language and ecosystem. So, thanks to a generous\nplatform grant from <a href=\"http://ocaml.janestreet.com\">Jane Street</a>, we are\nlaunching a program to help with the open-source development of OCaml\nfrom Cambridge.</p>\n<p>The <em><a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/ocamllabs/\">OCaml Labs</a></em> are\nbased in the <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk\">Cambridge Computer Lab</a> and led\nmy myself, <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~am21/\">Alan Mycroft</a> and <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~iml1/\">Ian\nLeslie</a>. We\u2019re closely affiliated with\nother\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/ocamllabs/collaboration.html\">groups</a>,\nand will be:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>developing the OCaml Platform, which will bundle the official OCaml\ncompiler from INRIA with a tested set of community libraries that\nrefreshed every six months.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>working with the core OCaml team at INRIA\u2019s\n<a href=\"http://gallium.inria.fr/\">Gallium</a> group on the compiler, and with\ncommercial partners like <a href=\"http://ocamlpro.com\">OCamlPro</a> on tool\ndevelopment. OCamlPro are making some very impressive progress\nalready with the <a href=\"http://opam.ocamlpro.com\">OPAM</a> packge manager and\n<a href=\"http://www.typerex.org\">TypeRex</a> IDE helper.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>supporting the online presence with more teaching material and\ncontent. Yaron, Jason and I are working hard on a <a href=\"http://realworldocaml.org\">new\nbook</a> that will be published next year,\nand the OCaml Web team (led by <a href=\"http://ashishagarwal.org\">Ashish</a>\nand\n<a href=\"https://plus.google.com/109604597514379193052/posts\">Christophe</a>)\nhave made great progress on a <a href=\"http://www.ocaml-lang.org\">brand new\nwebsite</a> that we will move to the\n<code>ocaml.org</code> domain soon.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<h3><a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/#research-efforts\"></a>Research efforts</h3>\n<p>Of course, it is difficult to hack on a language in a void, and we also\n<em>use</em> OCaml heavily in our own research. The other half of OCaml Lab\u2019s\ngoals are more disruptive (and riskier!):</p>\n<ul>\n<li>The upcoming first beta release of <a href=\"http://openmirage.org\">Mirage</a>,\nwhich is an operating system designed for cloud and embedded\nenvironments, and is written almost entirely from the ground up in\nOCaml. The outputs of Mirage include a <a href=\"http://www.openmirage.org/blog/breaking-up-is-easy-with-opam\">large number of\nlibraries</a>\nwhich are usable separately, such as pure implementations of TCP/IP,\nDNS, SSH, DHCP and HTTP. The Xen hackers, led by <a href=\"http://dave.recoil.org\">David Scott</a>, are out in force to integrate Mirage\ninto their <a href=\"http://www.xen.org/xensummit/xs12na_talks/T2.html\">next-generation</a>\nplatform. Meanwhile, Raphael Proust is busy eliminating the <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/drafts/2012-places-limel-draft1.pdf\">garbage\ncollector</a>\nwith his cut-down \u201cLinearML\u201d variant.</li>\n<li>Working with our collaborators at the <a href=\"http://horizon.ac.uk\">Horizon\nInstitute</a> on privacy-preserving technologies\nsuch as\n<a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/2012-sigcomm-signposts-demo.pdf\">Signposts</a>\nwhich let you build and maintain your own personal clouds that\noperate <a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/papers/2011-icdcn-droplets.pdf\">autonomously</a>\nfrom the central cloud. You can read more about our <a href=\"http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/privacy-by-design/\">privacy-by-design</a> philosophy too.</li>\n<li>Extending OCaml to run on secure hardware platforms that doesn\u2019t\ncompromise on performance, using the MIPS64-based <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/ctsrd/cheri.html\">capability\nprocessor</a>\nthat is being developed at at the Lab.</li>\n<li>The <a href=\"http://www.trilogy-project.org\">Trilogy</a> was a hugely\nsuccessful EU-funded effort on future evolution of the Internet, and\nresulted in <a href=\"http://trilogy-project.org/publications/standards-contributions.html\">numerous\nRFCs</a>\non subjects such as multipath-TCP. We\u2019re partipating in the\nfollow-up (imaginatively dubbed \u201cTrilogy2\u201d), and look forward to\nworking on more structured abstractions for programming large-scale\nnetworks.</li>\n</ul>\n<h3><a href=\"https://anil.recoil.org/#getting-involved\"></a>Getting involved</h3>\n<p>So, how can you get involved? We are initially advertising three\npositions for full-time developers and researchers\n(<a href=\"http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/-21662/\">junior</a> and\n<a href=\"http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/-21942/\">senior</a>) to help us get started\nwith the OCaml Platform and compiler development. These aren\u2019t\nconventional pure research jobs, and a successful candidate should enjoy\nthe open-source development cycle (you retain your own copyright for\nyour own projects). The Computer Lab offers a pretty unique environment:\na friendly, non-hierarchical group in a beautiful city, and some of the\nbest faculty and students you could hope to hang out with.</p>\n<p>And finally, there is a longer lead time on <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/admissions/phd/\">applying for\nPhDs</a>, but this is a great time\nto get involved. When I started at the Lab in 2002, a little project\ncalled <a href=\"http://xen.org\">Xen</a> was just kicking off, and many of us had a\nwild (and oft great) time riding that wave. Get in touch with myself,\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~am21/\">Alan</a>,\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~iml1/\">Ian</a> or\n<a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jac22/\">Jon</a> soon if you are interested in\napplying! There\u2019s some more information available on the <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/ocamllabs/collaboration.html\">OCaml Labs\npages</a>\nabout options.</p>",
9 "content_type": "html",
10 "author": {
11 "name": "Anil Madhavapeddy",
12 "email": "anil@recoil.org",
13 "uri": "https://anil.recoil.org"
14 },
15 "categories": [],
16 "rights": "(c) 1998-2025 Anil Madhavapeddy, all rights reserved",
17 "source": "https://anil.recoil.org/news.xml"
18}