The Caml Light distribution

The current version is 0.75, released in january 2002.

The previous version is 0.74, released in December 1997.

The master distribution site is ftp.inria.fr, in directory INRIA/caml-light.
Mirror sites are described here.
The files available are presented below.

For Unix machines:

Source code for Unix machines (with bootstrap compiler)
These sources compile right out of the box on most modern Unix platforms. The distribution includes a bootstrap compiler and a number of contributed tools and libraries.

Extract with gunzip and tar xf.

Precompiled executable binaries for the 0.74 version (RPMS) are available for Linux Red Hat (Intel processors):
Precompiled executable binaries for Mac OS X:
see below, section "For the Macintosh"

The Camlot native-code Caml compiler
Camlot is a high-performance compiler that produces native machine code from Caml sources, using C as an intermediate language. The resulting programs execute much faster than when compiled with the bytecoded Caml Light system. (Not yet upgraded to version 0.74.)

To use the compiler, you need an ANSI C compiler, preferably GCC. To install this new compiler you need the normal Caml Light compiler and the GNU make utility. Camlot is highly portable to any 32-bit platform.

Extract with gunzip and tar xf.

The Bigloo native-code Caml compiler
Bigloo is an optimizing Scheme and Caml compiler that produces native machine code from Caml sources. Compatibility with the bytecoded implementation of Caml Light is almost perfect. Performance of generated code is on a par with that of the best ML compilers. Bigloo is also one of the most efficient Scheme compilers available.

Bigloo runs on the following Unix platforms: Decstations 3000 and 5000, Sparcstations, PCs under Linux, HP PA 730 and Sony News R3000.

This compiler is described in INRIA Research Report 2301.

Not yet upgraded to version 0.74.

Extract with gunzip and tar xf.

For the Macintosh:

Binary package for Mac OS X (10.3)
You need Mac OS X version 10.3 or later, with X11 and the Xcode tools installed.

Transfer in binary mode to obtain a standard installer package.

Binaries for the Macintosh version.
They run on any Macintosh with at least 2M of RAM and System 6 or 7. These are ``fat binaries'': they run in native mode on the Power Mac.

Transfer in MacBinary to obtain a self-extracting Compactor archive.

Source code for the Macintosh version.
Not required to run Caml Light. Transfer this archive only if you want to read the source code, or recompile the system yourself (this requires the Macintosh Programmer's Workbench version 3.3).

Transfer in MacBinary to obtain a self-extracting Compactor archive.

On-line documentation for the Macintosh version.
Transfer in MacBinary to obtain a self-extracting Compactor archive.

For the PC under Windows:

Binaries for the Windows version.
This version runs under Windows 95, Windows NT, and also Windows 3.1 provided the Win32s compatibility system is installed.

Self-installing archive.

Documentation:

Frequently asked questions about Caml Light: FAQ (english version).
Tutorial introduction to Caml programming: Functional programming using Caml Light (200k Postscript file).
Reference manual: The Caml Light system, release 0.74; documentation and user's manual.