neocaml

neocaml is new Emacs mode for programming in OCaml.

It's also as cool as Neo from "The Matrix". ;-)

Why?

Because caml-mode is ancient, and tuareg-mode is a beast. (it's very powerful, but also very complex) The time seems ripe for a modern, leaner, TreeSitter-powered mode for OCaml.

There have been two other attempts to create TreeSitter-powered major modes for Emacs, but they didn't get very far:

• ocaml-ts-mode (first one, available in MELPA)
• ocaml-ts-mode (second one)

Looking at the code of both modes, I inferred that the authors were probably knowledgable in OCaml, but not very familiar with Emacs Lisp and Emacs major modes in general. For me it's the other way around, and that's what makes this a fun and interesting project for me:

• I enjoy working on Emacs packages
• I want to do more work TreeSitter, how that it's getting more traction
• I really like OCaml and it's one of my favorite "hobby" languages

They say that third time's the charm, and I hope that neocaml will get farther than them. Time will tell!

One last thing - we really need more Emacs packages with fun names! :D

Goal

Build a modern Emacs major mode for OCaml, powered by TreeSitter for font-locking and indentation.

Secondary goal - port this functionality to Tuareg, if feasible.

Status

The project is just an experiment at this point and only adventurous people are encouraged to play with it.

Installation

Right now it's manual only, unless you're on Emacs 29+ where you can do this:

M-x package-vc-install <RET> https://github.com/bbatsov/neocaml <RET>

In Emacs 30 you can you use-package to both install the package from GitHub and configure it:

(use-package neocaml
  :vc (:url "https://github.com/bbatsov/neocaml" :rev :newest))

Note: neocaml will auto-install the required TreeSitter grammars the first time one of the provided major modes is activated.

Usage

The neocaml package bundled two major modes - one for OCaml code and one for OCaml interfaces (.mli). Both modes will be auto-enabled when you open the respective type of files.

You can use C-c C-a to toggle between implementation and interface files.

Configuration

The modes provide 4 levels of font-locking, as is the standard for TreeSitter-powered modes. The default font-locking level is Emacs is 3, and you can change like this:

;; this font-lock everything neocaml supports
(setq treesit-font-lock-level 4)

See the documention for treesit-font-lock-level and treesit-font-lock-features for more details.

You can "prettify" certain symbols (see neocaml-prettify-symbols-alist) by enabling:

;; this font-lock everything neocaml supports
(setq neocaml-use-prettify-symbols t)

Toplevel (REPL) Integration

neocaml provides integration with the OCaml toplevel (REPL). This allows you to evaluate OCaml code directly from your source buffer and see the results.

You can also start a OCaml REPL (toplevel) and interact with it using neocaml-repl-minor-mode. You can enable the mode like this:

(add-hook 'neocaml-mode-hook 'neocaml-repl-minor-mode)

The following commands are available for interacting with the OCaml toplevel:

Keybinding	Command	Description
C-c C-z	neocaml-repl-switch-to-repl	Start OCaml REPL or switch to it if already running
C-c C-c	neocaml-repl-send-definition	Send the current definition to the REPL
C-c C-r	neocaml-repl-send-region	Send the selected region to the REPL
C-c C-b	neocaml-repl-send-buffer	Send the entire buffer to the REPL
C-c C-p	neocaml-repl-send-phrase	Send the current phrase (code up to next ;;) to the REPL
C-c C-i	neocaml-repl-interrupt	Interrupt the current evaluation in the REPL
C-c C-k	neocaml-repl-clear-buffer	Clear the REPL buffer

Configuration

You can customize the OCaml REPL integration with the following variables:

;; Change the OCaml toplevel program
(setq neocaml-repl-program-name "utop")  ; Use utop instead of ocaml

;; Add command-line arguments
(setq neocaml-repl-program-args '("-short-paths" "-color=never"))

;; Change the REPL buffer name
(setq neocaml-repl-buffer-name "*OCaml-REPL*")

;; Disable pretty symbols in the REPL buffer
(setq neocaml-repl-use-prettify-symbols nil)

Using utop instead of the default OCaml toplevel

utop is an improved toplevel for OCaml with many features like auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and a rich history. To use utop with neocaml-repl:

(setq neocaml-repl-program-name "utop")
(setq neocaml-repl-program-args '("-emacs"))

Progress

Things that work

• Auto-installation of ocaml and ocaml-interface grammars
• Font-locking
• Basic indentation
• Toggling between implementation and interface using ff-find-other-file (C-c C-a and C-c 4 C-a)
• Basic integration with a top-level (neocaml-repl)
• Imenu

Things that don't work

Everything else. :-)

Planned features

• Smart expression navigation
• Basic integration with dune

Development notes

The mode will install the ocaml and ocaml-interface grammars automatically when needed. (e.g. when you visit an .ml the ocaml grammar will be downloaded and installed)

You can you neocaml--debug to get more debug information from TreeSitter:

• When you set this to it will output indentation debug data and enable treesitter-inspect-mode (this shows the current node in the modeline)
• When you set this to 'font-lock it will also output some font-lock debug info.

As combobulate doesn't support OCaml yet, it seems the best way to test TS queries is the following:

If you don’t want to use Combobulate to help you, the builtin method – the only method – is to call treesit-query-capture with a starting node (often the one from treesit-buffer-root-node or treesit-parser-root-node) and the query and then manually inspect the output to see if it’s right. Ugh. It’s messy, and it’s hard work. Trust me, I know. I recommend you learn how to use IELM if you decide to go this route.

Font-locking

You can control the amount of fontification applied by Font Lock mode of major modes based on tree-sitter by customizing the variable treesit-font-lock-level. Its value is a number between 1 and 4:

• Level 1: This level usually fontifies only comments and function names in function definitions.
• Level 2 This level adds fontification of keywords, strings, and data types.
• Level 3 This is the default level; it adds fontification of assignments, numbers, etc.
• Level 4 This level adds everything else that can be fontified: operators, delimiters, brackets, other punctuation, function names in function calls, property look ups, variables, etc.

Note that the 4 levels are defined by each major-mode and the above are just recommendations.

Source of inspiration

Based on ideas and code from:

• clojure-ts-mode
• ocaml-ts-mode
• nvim-treesitter's OCaml TreeSitter queries
• https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/lets-write-a-treesitter-major-mode

References

• https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Parsing-Program-Source.html
• https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Tree_002dsitter-Major-Modes.html
• https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Parser_002dbased-Indentation.html#index-treesit_002dsimple_002dindent_002dpresets (indentation)
• https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Faces-for-Font-Lock.html
• https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2024/03/19/lets_create_a_tree-sitter_grammar/
• https://archive.casouri.cc/note/2024/emacs-30-tree-sitter/