Add release automation, Docker support, Windows cross-compilation, and enhanced REPL experience

[Francesco146]

This PR introduces significant infrastructure improvements across build systems, CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and user experience. The changes enable automated releases, reproducible builds, cross-platform support, and a modernized interactive REPL.

Release Automation & CI/CD

• Comprehensive GitHub Actions workflow (buildAndTest.yml):
  • Multi-platform build matrix: Linux x86_64, macOS x86_64, macOS arm64
  • Automated artifact creation for each platform (mosml-<platform>-<arch>.tar.gz)
  • Windows cross-compilation via Docker (mingw32)
  • Windows installer generation using Inno Setup
  • Automatic GitHub Release creation on version tags (v*.*.*)
• Docker build workflow (docker.yml):
  • Automated image builds for GitHub Container Registry and Docker Hub
  • Multi-registry support with proper tagging (latest + semver)
  • Build caching for improved CI performance

Docker Support

• Dockerfile:
  • Multi-stage build for minimal image size
  • Ubuntu 22.04 base with runtime dependencies only
• Docker Compose configuration for local development
• Windows cross-build Dockerfile (Dockerfile.w32):
  • Ubuntu 14.04 i386 base for legacy MinGW compatibility
  • Automated Windows binary packaging
  • Cross-compilation script with extensive validation

Windows Support

• Cross-compilation infrastructure:
  • build-win.sh script with comprehensive options and error handling
  • Support for custom source/output directories and parallel builds
  • Dry-run mode for debugging
  • Proper DESTDIR handling for staged installations
• Windows installer improvements:
  • Italian language support added

Enhanced REPL Experience

• Intelligent rlwrap integration in mosml launcher:
  • Automatic detection and usage when available
  • XDG Base Directory compliance for history storage
  • Fallback to $HOME/.local/share/mosml/history when XDG_DATA_HOME not set
  • Opt-out via DISABLE_RLWRAP=1 environment variable
  • Features: command history, arrow key editing, line navigation
• Cross-platform history support including macOS, Linux, and Windows (MSYS/Git Bash)

Build System Improvements

• Robust GMP detection:
  • Prefer pkg-config when available
  • Intelligent fallback to common system paths (Homebrew, apt, system libs)
  • Support for explicit GMPINCDIR and GMPLIBDIR overrides
  • Clear warning messages when GMP not found
• Fixed compiler warnings and errors:
  • Standardized main() signatures across auto-aux helpers
  • C99/C11 compliance improvements
  • Header includes added where missing
• Improved Makefile robustness:
  • Error-tolerant clean targets (continue on missing directories)
  • Support for install_w32 target in lex
  • Proper DESTDIR and PREFIX handling throughout

Bug Fixes

• Word64 module fixes:
  • Proper handling of overflow in toInt
• Runtime system fixes:
  • Fixed SA_NOMASK → SA_NODEFER for POSIX compliance
  • Missing includes added (stdlib.h, fail.h, memory.h)

Repository Hygiene

• Comprehensive .gitignore:
  • Build artifacts, temporary files, OS-specific files
  • Docker shared volumes, staging directories
  • Generated from gitignore.io templates (Linux, macOS, Windows, C, StandardML, LaTeX)
• .dockerignore for efficient Docker builds
• Version bump to 2.10.5

Documentation Updates

• Updated installation instructions for Windows (install.txt.w32)
• Improved Inno Setup README
• Release notes template with platform-specific installation guides

Testing

All changes have been tested across:

• Ubuntu (latest)
• macOS Intel (x86_64)
• macOS Apple Silicon (arm64)
• Windows (cross-compiled via Docker)
• Docker containers (REPL with rlwrap, history persistence)

Breaking Changes

All changes are backward compatible. The rlwrap integration is opt-in by availability and can be disabled. The CI process for pushing mosml images to Docker HUB require two repository secrets:

• DOCKERHUB_USERNAME: the account username
• DOCKERHUB_TOKEN: the PAT for this repo

[Francesco146]

the only thing that i can think of for a working mosml implementation on Windows is my port of mosml to Docker:

https://github.com/Francesco146/mosml-docker

[Francesco146]

update: https://github.com/kfl/mosml/wiki/Notes-about-how-to-build-Moscow-ML-installers#for-windows this seems to work, it still uses the deprecated i586-mingw32msvc-gcc, but a simple change in the Makefile worked and produced:

camlrt.dll  camlrunm.exe  mosml.exe  mosmlc.exe  mosmlyac.exe

i'll push the changes here

[Francesco146]

okay, update: i've published the automatic build system for Windows. it all uses InnoSetup, so that's cool. i changed the branch to devel, but as i suspected, it introduced some regression:

File “Word64.sml”, line 171, characters 25-44:
!         if w > fromWord_ 0wx3FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF then raise Overflow
!                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
make[1]: *** [Word64.uo] Error 2
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
! Lexical error: word constant is too large.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mosml/src/mosmllib'
make: *** [world] Error 2

i'll take a look at these right now

[Francesco146]

i found an issue in the Word64 conversion layer:

1. the *X conversion functions in Word64.sml (toIntX, toLargeIntX, toLargeWordX, toLargeX) were incorrectly bound to the zero-extending primitive boxed_uint64_toword. these functions are intended to perform sign extension, so this mismatch could lead to incorrect results for values where bit 63 is set.

i've updated (84b1250) the SML prim_val binding to reference a new primitive boxed_uint64_toword_signed and added the corresponding implementation in boxed_num.c, which:

• reads the 64-bit boxed value
• sign-extends bit 63 into the host integer/word
• returns the correctly boxed result
• follows the same runtime registration and error handling as the existing zero-extending primitive

[Francesco146]

also, in the Word64 shift functions:

1. the shift functions in Word64.sml (<<, >>, ~>>) were using toInt k to check shift bounds. for very large k, toInt k can raise Overflow, making the functions unsafe for large shift counts.

i've updated (82e40e3) the functions to use word-level comparisons instead of converting k to an ML int. the changes:

• compare k directly to fromInt 64 and fromInt 0 using existing word comparison primitives or less_/equal_ helpers
• ensure shifts with k >= 64 or k < 0 return ZERO (or the sign-extended result for ~>>) safely

[Francesco146]

hmm, i think it's better to address these corrections in another PR. i believe Int64 and Word64 need some changes in terms of functionality, but also bug fixing and documentation in the signatures, should i revert this changes for now?

edit: note that 15d25ff is needed for the CI/CD to succeed

[Francesco146]

done, sorry for the back and forth, i found a few edge cases that my additions didn't handle. everything should be fine now and ready for review. i think it's best to revert the two commits, but i'll wait to hear what you think :)