4 ms·

"The killer app for OCaml is front-end webdev with Reason." I'll make a 1000$, 10 year bet with you that in 2028, if browsers still exist, ReasonML (or its suc

"The killer app for OCaml is front-end webdev with Reason." I'll make a 1000$, 10 year bet with you that in 2028, if browsers still exist, ReasonML (or its successors) will be nowhere near mainstream status (which is the point we are discussing here). I like Reason, or at least the idea of it. Javascript itself might incorporate more static typing in 2028 than today's version does, but I suggest the 'advances' will be relatively miniscule.

MaxBarraclough 8y ago
I agree that JavaScript isn't going to change significantly, but fortunately it can be treated as a compiler's target platform, not only a source language. We're not going to see any language supplant JavaScript in the browser. Dart got nowhere, and that was with the backing of Google. But there are already toolkits out there that compile down to JavaScript. GWT, for instance.
- vram22 8y ago
  >We're not going to see any language supplant JavaScript in the browser. Dart got nowhere, and that was with the backing of Google. Never say never (again. With apologies to Ian Fleming). Just because Dart couldn't do it (even with Google), doesn't mean that nothing else can. I, for one, hope something better does supplant JS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Never_Again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Never_Again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming
jasim 8y ago
I hold hope, but not certainty!
cbzbc 8y ago
I think the problem here is that OCaml/ReasonML is a relatively large language - the flip side to the nice syntactic sugar, and there's a paucity of material to get people into ReasonML if they haven't touched FP before (which for FP to take off is the target audience).
- jasim 8y ago
  It is definitely not ideal, but they are happening. A few helpful resources: Nik Graf has a free ReasonML course on Egghead.io, which has a lot of positive reviews from the community. https://egghead.io/courses/get-started-with-reason https://egghead.io/courses/get-started-with-reason Dr. Axel Rauschmayer has written "Exploring ReasonML and functional programming" which covers the language comprehensively. http://reasonmlhub.com/exploring-reasonml/ http://reasonmlhub.com/exploring-reasonml/ Web Development with ReasonML by J. David Eisenberg, published by Pragmatic Bookshelfis in the works. I read a few sample chapters and they're excellent for beginners: https://pragprog.com/book/reasonml/web-development-with-reasonml https://pragprog.com/book/reasonml/web-development-with-reas... Jane Street wrote a set of 24 runnable exercises that teaches OCaml, and we ported it to ReasonML. It has been used for workshops and individual study and will get you upto speed on the paradigm quickly. https://github.com/protoship/learn-reasonml-workshop https://github.com/protoship/learn-reasonml-workshop You also have textbooks on OCaml, a lot of them openly accessible, including the venerable Real World OCaml. They are all listed in the awesome-ocaml repository: https://github.com/rizo/awesome-ocaml#books https://github.com/rizo/awesome-ocaml#books There is vramana's awesome-reasonml repository that covers similar ground for Reason itself: https://github.com/vramana/awesome-reasonml https://github.com/vramana/awesome-reasonml
  - kmf 8y ago
    Going to plug a quick thing here :) I run a project called Byteconf - we have a free ReasonML conference coming up this Friday, streamed on Twitch: https://www.byteconf.com/reason-2018 https://www.byteconf.com/reason-2018
- weberc2 8y ago
  > there's a paucity of material to get people into ReasonML Believe it or not, it's even worse if you want to target native code and not JS.

MaxBarraclough 8y ago

I agree that JavaScript isn't going to change significantly, but fortunately it can be treated as a compiler's target platform, not only a source language. We're not going to see any language supplant JavaScript in the browser. Dart got nowhere, and that was with the backing of Google. But there are already toolkits out there that compile down to JavaScript. GWT, for instance.

vram22 8y ago
>We're not going to see any language supplant JavaScript in the browser. Dart got nowhere, and that was with the backing of Google. Never say never (again. With apologies to Ian Fleming). Just because Dart couldn't do it (even with Google), doesn't mean that nothing else can. I, for one, hope something better does supplant JS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Never_Again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Never_Again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming

jasim 8y ago

I hold hope, but not certainty!

cbzbc 8y ago

I think the problem here is that OCaml/ReasonML is a relatively large language - the flip side to the nice syntactic sugar, and there's a paucity of material to get people into ReasonML if they haven't touched FP before (which for FP to take off is the target audience).

jasim 8y ago
It is definitely not ideal, but they are happening. A few helpful resources: Nik Graf has a free ReasonML course on Egghead.io, which has a lot of positive reviews from the community. https://egghead.io/courses/get-started-with-reason https://egghead.io/courses/get-started-with-reason Dr. Axel Rauschmayer has written "Exploring ReasonML and functional programming" which covers the language comprehensively. http://reasonmlhub.com/exploring-reasonml/ http://reasonmlhub.com/exploring-reasonml/ Web Development with ReasonML by J. David Eisenberg, published by Pragmatic Bookshelfis in the works. I read a few sample chapters and they're excellent for beginners: https://pragprog.com/book/reasonml/web-development-with-reasonml https://pragprog.com/book/reasonml/web-development-with-reas... Jane Street wrote a set of 24 runnable exercises that teaches OCaml, and we ported it to ReasonML. It has been used for workshops and individual study and will get you upto speed on the paradigm quickly. https://github.com/protoship/learn-reasonml-workshop https://github.com/protoship/learn-reasonml-workshop You also have textbooks on OCaml, a lot of them openly accessible, including the venerable Real World OCaml. They are all listed in the awesome-ocaml repository: https://github.com/rizo/awesome-ocaml#books https://github.com/rizo/awesome-ocaml#books There is vramana's awesome-reasonml repository that covers similar ground for Reason itself: https://github.com/vramana/awesome-reasonml https://github.com/vramana/awesome-reasonml
- kmf 8y ago
  Going to plug a quick thing here :) I run a project called Byteconf - we have a free ReasonML conference coming up this Friday, streamed on Twitch: https://www.byteconf.com/reason-2018 https://www.byteconf.com/reason-2018
weberc2 8y ago
> there's a paucity of material to get people into ReasonML Believe it or not, it's even worse if you want to target native code and not JS.