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Is ReScript the same as ReasonML, and is it gaining real traction this time? A couple of years ago I looked into Reason and really liked it, but the toolchain

Is ReScript the same as ReasonML, and is it gaining real traction this time? A couple of years ago I looked into Reason and really liked it, but the toolchain wasn't going anywhere and it didn't see a lot of adaption back then.

ronenlh 5y ago
Yes and no. The syntax has been updated to make it less OCaml and more JavaScript-like. ReasonML can compile to native, rescript can’t. Reason still exists as a separate project, and projects that have been rewritten into reason will not necessarily switch.
- pbiggar 5y ago
  In theory this is correct, but in practice Reason(ML) is dead. Or it was the last time I checked a month or two ago. ReScript lives on though.
cies 5y ago
Such a pity they've become two projects. To have on lang for both BE and FE is really nice.
- elcapitan 5y ago
  Well technically I guess you could still have that via node, just not native as with the Ocaml compiler?
  - askonomm 5y ago
    And via Deno as well.
  - cies 5y ago
    I rather work with OCaml/httpaf[0] than with JS/express or what have you. [0]: https://github.com/inhabitedtype/httpaf https://github.com/inhabitedtype/httpaf
- omniscient_oce 5y ago
  Honestly that was the selling point of ReasonML to me. Share business domain types and share common code but also get a native compiled backend. The pattern matching, variants, and syntax of Rescript are quite nice but unfortunately I don't find it enough of a selling point for frontend code that (in my experience) does not benefit as much from those previous points as say writing compilers or parsers because the majority of what youre writing is interacting with 3rd party libs and components, building forms etc in React, for which the code ends up looking pretty similar in rescript-react.
  - cies 5y ago
    Exactly. I could take the whole "generate API consumer client lib from API specification" out of the equation.
  - pbiggar 5y ago
    We tried doing this with darklang. It ended up not actually working that well (it took a lot of effort to have even a few shared types), and it didn't get us very much either.
    - omniscient_oce 5y ago
      I think I read your postmortem on that actually. Good stuff

ronenlh 5y ago

Yes and no. The syntax has been updated to make it less OCaml and more JavaScript-like. ReasonML can compile to native, rescript can’t. Reason still exists as a separate project, and projects that have been rewritten into reason will not necessarily switch.

pbiggar 5y ago
In theory this is correct, but in practice Reason(ML) is dead. Or it was the last time I checked a month or two ago. ReScript lives on though.

cies 5y ago

Such a pity they've become two projects. To have on lang for both BE and FE is really nice.

elcapitan 5y ago
Well technically I guess you could still have that via node, just not native as with the Ocaml compiler?
- askonomm 5y ago
  And via Deno as well.
- cies 5y ago
  I rather work with OCaml/httpaf[0] than with JS/express or what have you. [0]: https://github.com/inhabitedtype/httpaf https://github.com/inhabitedtype/httpaf
omniscient_oce 5y ago
Honestly that was the selling point of ReasonML to me. Share business domain types and share common code but also get a native compiled backend. The pattern matching, variants, and syntax of Rescript are quite nice but unfortunately I don't find it enough of a selling point for frontend code that (in my experience) does not benefit as much from those previous points as say writing compilers or parsers because the majority of what youre writing is interacting with 3rd party libs and components, building forms etc in React, for which the code ends up looking pretty similar in rescript-react.
- cies 5y ago
  Exactly. I could take the whole "generate API consumer client lib from API specification" out of the equation.
- pbiggar 5y ago
  We tried doing this with darklang. It ended up not actually working that well (it took a lot of effort to have even a few shared types), and it didn't get us very much either.
  - omniscient_oce 5y ago
    I think I read your postmortem on that actually. Good stuff