Windows

Danger

The Windows installation is currently experimental, as the Windows support for the OCaml software toolchain dates from the early 2020s.

Getting Opam

Open a PowerShell and install opam by invoking

$ Invoke-Expression "& { $(Invoke-RestMethod https://opam.ocaml.org/install.ps1) }"

Alternative opam installation methods

If an unexpected error occurs, try another opam installation method as listed on the OCaml on Windows official webpage.

Then, initialize opam:

$ opam init -c 4.14.2

Getting Catala

Currently, the opam Catala package is not directly buildable on Windows. However, the Catala's lsp server bundles a subset of Catala which is fine. This may be installed with the following command

$ opam pin git+https://github.com/CatalaLang/catala-lsp -y

Setting up the Catala LSP server

After the previous step, the Catala LSP server should be built in opam's binaries directory. In order for VSCode to be able to get it, this directory must be added to Windows' PATH environment variable.

To change the PATH environment variable, follow these instructions.

opam binary directory on Windows

The directory in question should be located in %LOCALAPPDATA%\opam\default\bin (n.b., default might be named something else such as "4.14.2", double-check the directory location).

Getting the VSCode extension

Install VSCode and open it. Browse the extension marketplace and install the Catala extension.

Getting the Catala code formatter

Currently, the code formatter is not yet available on Windows.