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I don't think that was the case for a long time on the tooling side, OCaml has a great support for ARM64 for a long time now, but Linux ARM64. But well most dev

I don't think that was the case for a long time on the tooling side, OCaml has a great support for ARM64 for a long time now, but Linux ARM64. But well most developers aren't actually using Linux. But a thing that is going to change is supporting iOS, one of the reasons that this PR was approved(and it adds support to iOS) it's mostly because there is a Mac ARM64

asveikau 6y ago
I don't know much about ocaml specifically, but speaking in the abstract, probably one of the best reasons I can think of for a compiler to target arm64 Linux is to target android phones.
- EduardoRFS 6y ago
  Android isn't even on the official list of OS supported, recently I fixed the build system for Android, OCaml is just not a mobile language(yet)
enedil 6y ago
Most OCaml developers might be actually using Linux though.
nix23 6y ago
>But well most developers aren't actually using Linux. What??
- the_af 6y ago
  I'm guessing he might have meant OCaml devs? Most development shops I've worked in used Linux servers to host their solution, and mostly Linux/Unix based tools and dev environments (people who preferred Windows as their desktop usually ssh'd to Linux boxes to work).
  - non-entity 6y ago
    I wouldn't think so, from what I've read OCaml has pretty poor windows support.
  - EduardoRFS 6y ago
    Most developers, there is a lot of places to get this information but if you look at the stackoverflow survey, which is a survey large enough to be relevant, you get some data around 25% of developers using Linux. We're talking about as their computer, not servers tho, everyone uses Linux for server
    - the_af 6y ago
      Thanks for the answer! I have a followup question: if the server is Linux, that means the app itself (or the "solution") is Linux based, which means that an OCaml solution would have to compile (or cross-compile to) and run on Linux, which means that ARM64 on Linux is relevant :) Unless of course most OCaml devs don't target Linux.
      - yawaramin 6y ago
        Sure it's relevant, but again like Eduardo said, most devs don't have Linux ARM64 dev machines, they don't use it on a daily basis, they don't have experience with it.
    - nix23 6y ago
      53% Use Linux: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-platforms https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-... >Linux and Windows are the most common platforms that our respondents say they have done development work for this year. We asked about container technologies like Docker for the first time this year, and Docker was the third most broadly used platform. But: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-developers-primary-operating-systems https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-...
      - 6y ago
- scythe 6y ago
  They at least aren't using Linux on ARM laptops/desktops, which has been a year away for around a decade now.
- coldtea 6y ago
  Well, most aren't. The huge majority of developers use Windows and many use OS X. In any major dev conference in the US/Europe OS X is almost 50% or more (and almost 80% on the presenters side), while Windows has tons of "silent" users (e.g. not the kind to make noise on blogs/HN/etc, but like 90% of devs anyway, working in enterprise, etc). Even on Stack Overflow poll, which attracts less of the kind of "silent" enterprise devs more likely to use Windows and "bland" environments like .NET and Java, it's 45% Windows, 27% OS X and a little less of that (26%) Linux. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/stack-overflow-developer-survey-2020-programming-language-framework-salary-data/ https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/stack-overflow-developer-s...
  - asveikau 6y ago
    It's funny to see your observations about Stack Overflow, because it was co-founded by an ex Microsoft guy (Spolsky) and I remember in early days there it had quite the .NET community which was probably not coincidental. I think they also run the site on .NET.
    - noir_lord 6y ago
      They do and very efficiently, it was at one point a bunch of high end servers - they called it out as an example of going deep not broad for scaling. I remember reading they had 256GB of RAM on DB servers when that seemed like an absurd amount to me.
slezyr 6y ago
> But well most developers aren't actually using Linux. Then it would be Windows and not Mac OS. Is Mac OS any popular outside USA?
- nicoburns 6y ago
  It's certainly popular in the UK. Especially for developers and students. Of course if you're doing mobile (iOS) dev you're pretty much forced to use macs.
- monadic2 6y ago
  I'm not really sure you can call macs "popular" even here in the US.... they're a professional luxury for the most part. I say this with three macs within reach of me.
  - unreal6 6y ago
    They seem exceedingly popular in academia, it seems that most university students and professors posses them, even in computer science departments.
  - freehunter 6y ago
    The subject of the conversation is developers, who are almost by definition luxurious professionals.
    - josephg 6y ago
      It really depends on the programming culture. Game developers and many enterprise software developers almost universally develop on windows. I’ve had conversations with some people from those areas who have been shocked at the idea software developers use macs - they personally don’t know anyone who does. But web development shops (especially node/react/etc), consulting, and SV startups seem to pretty consistently use macs. It’s hard to intuitively tell how popular any of this stuff is in absolute terms because we’re all individually trapped in filter bubbles based on the kind of programmers we interact with.

asveikau 6y ago

I don't know much about ocaml specifically, but speaking in the abstract, probably one of the best reasons I can think of for a compiler to target arm64 Linux is to target android phones.

EduardoRFS 6y ago
Android isn't even on the official list of OS supported, recently I fixed the build system for Android, OCaml is just not a mobile language(yet)

enedil 6y ago

Most OCaml developers might be actually using Linux though.

nix23 6y ago

>But well most developers aren't actually using Linux. What??

the_af 6y ago
I'm guessing he might have meant OCaml devs? Most development shops I've worked in used Linux servers to host their solution, and mostly Linux/Unix based tools and dev environments (people who preferred Windows as their desktop usually ssh'd to Linux boxes to work).
- non-entity 6y ago
  I wouldn't think so, from what I've read OCaml has pretty poor windows support.
- EduardoRFS 6y ago
  Most developers, there is a lot of places to get this information but if you look at the stackoverflow survey, which is a survey large enough to be relevant, you get some data around 25% of developers using Linux. We're talking about as their computer, not servers tho, everyone uses Linux for server
  - the_af 6y ago
    Thanks for the answer! I have a followup question: if the server is Linux, that means the app itself (or the "solution") is Linux based, which means that an OCaml solution would have to compile (or cross-compile to) and run on Linux, which means that ARM64 on Linux is relevant :) Unless of course most OCaml devs don't target Linux.
    - yawaramin 6y ago
      Sure it's relevant, but again like Eduardo said, most devs don't have Linux ARM64 dev machines, they don't use it on a daily basis, they don't have experience with it.
  - nix23 6y ago
    53% Use Linux: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-platforms https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-... >Linux and Windows are the most common platforms that our respondents say they have done development work for this year. We asked about container technologies like Docker for the first time this year, and Docker was the third most broadly used platform. But: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-developers-primary-operating-systems https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-...
    - 6y ago
scythe 6y ago
They at least aren't using Linux on ARM laptops/desktops, which has been a year away for around a decade now.
coldtea 6y ago
Well, most aren't. The huge majority of developers use Windows and many use OS X. In any major dev conference in the US/Europe OS X is almost 50% or more (and almost 80% on the presenters side), while Windows has tons of "silent" users (e.g. not the kind to make noise on blogs/HN/etc, but like 90% of devs anyway, working in enterprise, etc). Even on Stack Overflow poll, which attracts less of the kind of "silent" enterprise devs more likely to use Windows and "bland" environments like .NET and Java, it's 45% Windows, 27% OS X and a little less of that (26%) Linux. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/stack-overflow-developer-survey-2020-programming-language-framework-salary-data/ https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/stack-overflow-developer-s...
- asveikau 6y ago
  It's funny to see your observations about Stack Overflow, because it was co-founded by an ex Microsoft guy (Spolsky) and I remember in early days there it had quite the .NET community which was probably not coincidental. I think they also run the site on .NET.
  - noir_lord 6y ago
    They do and very efficiently, it was at one point a bunch of high end servers - they called it out as an example of going deep not broad for scaling. I remember reading they had 256GB of RAM on DB servers when that seemed like an absurd amount to me.

slezyr 6y ago

> But well most developers aren't actually using Linux. Then it would be Windows and not Mac OS. Is Mac OS any popular outside USA?

nicoburns 6y ago
It's certainly popular in the UK. Especially for developers and students. Of course if you're doing mobile (iOS) dev you're pretty much forced to use macs.
monadic2 6y ago
I'm not really sure you can call macs "popular" even here in the US.... they're a professional luxury for the most part. I say this with three macs within reach of me.
- unreal6 6y ago
  They seem exceedingly popular in academia, it seems that most university students and professors posses them, even in computer science departments.
- freehunter 6y ago
  The subject of the conversation is developers, who are almost by definition luxurious professionals.
  - josephg 6y ago
    It really depends on the programming culture. Game developers and many enterprise software developers almost universally develop on windows. I’ve had conversations with some people from those areas who have been shocked at the idea software developers use macs - they personally don’t know anyone who does. But web development shops (especially node/react/etc), consulting, and SV startups seem to pretty consistently use macs. It’s hard to intuitively tell how popular any of this stuff is in absolute terms because we’re all individually trapped in filter bubbles based on the kind of programmers we interact with.