4 ms·

OCaml is fascinating - it was my first exposure to functional programming through a great class at Harvard. We had a guest lecture from someone at Jane Street t

OCaml is fascinating - it was my first exposure to functional programming through a great class at Harvard. We had a guest lecture from someone at Jane Street that was quite memorable. Although these days I'm uncertain of any large institutions (outside of Jane Street) that actually use OCaml.

FluffyFez 5y ago
I really do wonder why Ocaml hasn't had its rails moment. I hated ML when I first encountered SML in college. As I became more familiar with functional programming, I started enjoying them. the ML languages just felt like such a better deal than the complexities arising from the purity of Haskell. More intuitive and have records. Maybe they'll have a moment yet. Their learning curve might still be steep. I do hope for a wide spread variation to come out some day.
- lmm 5y ago
  Well, it hasn't had anyone implementing something like Rails - it's easy to underestimate the importance of making a really simple onramp for beginners. I think there's a lot to be said for gradual sustainable growth though; OCaml isn't hyped, but we're quietly seeing more and more of it.
  - yawaramin 5y ago
    Yep, it's all about sustainability and backward-compatibility. There's no Rails yet, but the Sinatra-like Dream framework is very good and getting a lot of attention nowadays.
mirekrusin 5y ago
Michael Ryan Clarkson's from Cornell (CS 3110 Data Structures and Functional Programming) [0] is publicly available, really great, short videos format. [0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLre5AT9JnKShBOPeuiD9b-I4XROIJhkIU https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLre5AT9JnKShBOPeuiD9b...
- ssfrr 5y ago
  I’ve been learning OCaml over the past week or two and these videos have been extremely helpful. They’re well-organized well-edited. Seems like a ton of work went into them.
chrischen 5y ago
All the companies using Rescript (formerly ReasonML + Bucklescript compiler) and ones using Reasonml right now are effectively using Ocaml. It allows you to run Ocaml but target web browsers or Nodejs. This includes apps like TinyMCE, ahrefs, and around 50% of messenger.com code [1]. [1] https://reasonml.github.io/blog/2017/09/08/messenger-50-reason https://reasonml.github.io/blog/2017/09/08/messenger-50-reas...
- yawaramin 5y ago
  Just fyi, Ahrefs and probably some others in that list were using OCaml way before Reason came along. Ahrefs' web crawler (the second biggest after Google) is actually written in OCaml (native).
  - chrischen 5y ago
    Also the prototype of React, and the creator also went on to make ReasonML: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15209814 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15209814
junon 5y ago
Most of the verification community relies on OCaml to some extent.
- nextaccountic 5y ago
  Funnily enough, there is no verified OCaml implementation yet. Unlike, for instance, SML (well CakeML is a subset of SML with a verified implementation)

FluffyFez 5y ago

I really do wonder why Ocaml hasn't had its rails moment. I hated ML when I first encountered SML in college. As I became more familiar with functional programming, I started enjoying them. the ML languages just felt like such a better deal than the complexities arising from the purity of Haskell. More intuitive and have records. Maybe they'll have a moment yet. Their learning curve might still be steep. I do hope for a wide spread variation to come out some day.

lmm 5y ago
Well, it hasn't had anyone implementing something like Rails - it's easy to underestimate the importance of making a really simple onramp for beginners. I think there's a lot to be said for gradual sustainable growth though; OCaml isn't hyped, but we're quietly seeing more and more of it.
- yawaramin 5y ago
  Yep, it's all about sustainability and backward-compatibility. There's no Rails yet, but the Sinatra-like Dream framework is very good and getting a lot of attention nowadays.

mirekrusin 5y ago

Michael Ryan Clarkson's from Cornell (CS 3110 Data Structures and Functional Programming) [0] is publicly available, really great, short videos format. [0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLre5AT9JnKShBOPeuiD9b-I4XROIJhkIU https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLre5AT9JnKShBOPeuiD9b...

ssfrr 5y ago
I’ve been learning OCaml over the past week or two and these videos have been extremely helpful. They’re well-organized well-edited. Seems like a ton of work went into them.

chrischen 5y ago

All the companies using Rescript (formerly ReasonML + Bucklescript compiler) and ones using Reasonml right now are effectively using Ocaml. It allows you to run Ocaml but target web browsers or Nodejs. This includes apps like TinyMCE, ahrefs, and around 50% of messenger.com code [1]. [1] https://reasonml.github.io/blog/2017/09/08/messenger-50-reason https://reasonml.github.io/blog/2017/09/08/messenger-50-reas...

yawaramin 5y ago
Just fyi, Ahrefs and probably some others in that list were using OCaml way before Reason came along. Ahrefs' web crawler (the second biggest after Google) is actually written in OCaml (native).
- chrischen 5y ago
  Also the prototype of React, and the creator also went on to make ReasonML: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15209814 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15209814

junon 5y ago

Most of the verification community relies on OCaml to some extent.

nextaccountic 5y ago
Funnily enough, there is no verified OCaml implementation yet. Unlike, for instance, SML (well CakeML is a subset of SML with a verified implementation)