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Interested to find out why OCaml. Not that it's wrong in my view, but why, next to so many choices.
by keyle 11y ago
Interested to find out why OCaml. Not that it's wrong in my view, but why, next to so many choices.
- keyle 11y agoAh found an answer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKcOkWzj0_s&feature=youtu.be&t=25m25s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKcOkWzj0_s&feature=youtu.be...
- cellularmitosis 11y agoYaron Minsky of Jane Street gives some insight here https://vimeo.com/14313378 https://vimeo.com/14313378
- awongh 11y agoI don't know much about ML, but this was a good talk!
- KMag 11y agoI imagine it's because until about 5 years ago, there weren't many choices that were significantly safer than Java (no null references, failing to account for all cases in a match statement is a compile error, etc.) and generally within a factor of 2 of C's speed. Haskell's laziness by default can mean less predictable performance, or at least fatter tails on the performance distribution.
- thecage411 11y agoWhat would be the choices now? Most references to alternatives suggest Haskell.
- gohrt 11y agobecause Yaron Minksy is super-smart and he likes OCaml. Other companies do well without OCaml.
- ryporter 11y agoIt's a reasonable language choice, and the OCaml's type safety was obviously an important factor. However, the key reason why it was such a brilliant choice was for attracting top talent. People who show the initiative to learn a functional language tends be very self-motivated, intelligent, and passionate about their craft. As a result, Jane Street has long been known as one of the (if not the) top places to go if you want to do functional programming full-time.
- draven 11y agoFor a quick answer check out https://www.janestreet.com/technology/ https://www.janestreet.com/technology/ , "The OCaml difference" near the end of the page.
- bitdiddle 11y agoI believe for many of the same reasons that Lisp was used with great success in the past. OCaml is descended from the ML family of languages and grounded in solid mathematics, like Haskell. In the hands of the right person it's a formidable tool and arguably provides barriers to entry for competitors.