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I think one of the most realistic options would be to explore F# on Xamarin, if you are willing to pay the indie subscription fee (for Xamarin, that is). F# is

I think one of the most realistic options would be to explore F# on Xamarin, if you are willing to pay the indie subscription fee (for Xamarin, that is). F# is a superset of OCaml (well maybe not very strictly speaking but practically for all intents and purposes). Xamarin is gaining a lot of traction as a platform for writing native apps that deploy to Android and iOS. Personally I have very good experiences with both the language and the platform, I would recommend you check it out.

orbifold 12y ago
That is not entirely true, there is some overlap but also enough distinct features on the language level to make a difference. For example object oriented features in OCaml are quite different, OCaml has a more powerful module system (functors), it has open polymorphic variants, extensible syntax. F# has also a number of features that Ocaml hasn't, but it is definitely not true that one is the superset of the other. The runtime situation is arguably also a matter of preference, Ocaml compiles down to fairly efficient machine code and has a well tuned garbage collector, whereas F# at least initially had to rely on a garbage collector that was tuned for a different use case.
- martijn_himself 12y ago
  You give a very clear overview of the differences between the languages and I agree it is important to stress that there are significant differences between the two. The OP mentions mobile development though and if the goal is to ship apps targeting iOS and Android, it is not going to be practical to use OCaml- hence my suggestion.
kev6168 12y ago
For me F#'s syntax is so clean and pleasant to look at, I just love it. But having been in the JVM land for too long, at the beginning I like to get a bit more 'native' and learn OCaml. Hopefully acquired functional programming knowledge can be transferred to F#+Xamarin app development later.

orbifold 12y ago

That is not entirely true, there is some overlap but also enough distinct features on the language level to make a difference. For example object oriented features in OCaml are quite different, OCaml has a more powerful module system (functors), it has open polymorphic variants, extensible syntax. F# has also a number of features that Ocaml hasn't, but it is definitely not true that one is the superset of the other. The runtime situation is arguably also a matter of preference, Ocaml compiles down to fairly efficient machine code and has a well tuned garbage collector, whereas F# at least initially had to rely on a garbage collector that was tuned for a different use case.

martijn_himself 12y ago
You give a very clear overview of the differences between the languages and I agree it is important to stress that there are significant differences between the two. The OP mentions mobile development though and if the goal is to ship apps targeting iOS and Android, it is not going to be practical to use OCaml- hence my suggestion.

kev6168 12y ago

For me F#'s syntax is so clean and pleasant to look at, I just love it. But having been in the JVM land for too long, at the beginning I like to get a bit more 'native' and learn OCaml. Hopefully acquired functional programming knowledge can be transferred to F#+Xamarin app development later.