Code iOS Apps in OCaml
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Code iOS Apps in OCaml
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Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#2OCaml is a highly underappreciated language. The biggest problem is the haphazard syntax, but if you can get over that, it's really a joy to use for application programming. You get the strongly-typed, type-inferred, functional aspects of Haskell, but without the drawbacks of laziness (for example, you can safely do IO outside the IO monad, and space leaks are less common) and with a simpler type system. There are no null pointers, and coupled with exhaustiveness checks in pattern matching, you frequently find that "if it compiles, it works". The compiler is a simple non-optimizing compiler, but it's more mature than, for example, that of Go (especially in the GC), so it beats Go in performance.
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#3OCaml is a highly underappreciated language. The biggest problem is the haphazard syntax, but if you can get over that, it's really a joy to use for application programming. You get the strongly-typed, type-inferred, functional aspects of Haskell, but without the drawbacks of laziness (for example, you can safely do IO outside the IO monad, and space leaks are less common) and with a simpler type system. There are no…
It seems like a lifetime ago, but I actually spent one year in college mainly learning OCaml.
The language is really elegant, but I'm not sure I ever saw a real-life use for it until today.
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#4OCaml would be my main and only language if it had real concurrency ... but I'll definitely have to give this a try.
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#5OCaml is a highly underappreciated language. The biggest problem is the haphazard syntax, but if you can get over that, it's really a joy to use for application programming. You get the strongly-typed, type-inferred, functional aspects of Haskell, but without the drawbacks of laziness (for example, you can safely do IO outside the IO monad, and space leaks are less common) and with a simpler type system. There are no…
Having suffered through C++ for several years, and having enjoyed writing SML/NJ, the syntax doesn't bother me at all.
My big problem with OCaml is that the ecosystem is insanely poorly documented, and, if I understand this right (I am definitely not an OCaml expert), fractured. E.g., there's a lot of buzz about Jane Street's library, but, as far as I can tell, your code uses only their library or the built-in one, but not both. There's also several different build systems (ocamlbuild and ocaml-make spring to mind), and it's not clear to me which is preferred, nor how to deal with the fact that interesting-looking libraries seem split on which to use, meaning I'm guessing I need to somehow glue the systems together. There are several libraries for unicode support, but again, I don't know which (if any) is the "normal" one, and various libraries appear to use different unicode support libs, so I have no idea whether they can safely be mixed in a single application. And then there's this whole GODI thing, which appears to be kind of like RVM or perlbrew, but kind of its own thing. And so on.
What I'd love is a well-written, super-opinionated guide that says, "Okay, use ocamlbuild for building, use Jane Street's Async lib for multitasking, use GODI to manage your system and here's how you do that, grab this Unicode library, and you'll be good to write stuff that other people can easily use and maintain."
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#6OCaml is a highly underappreciated language. The biggest problem is the haphazard syntax, but if you can get over that, it's really a joy to use for application programming. You get the strongly-typed, type-inferred, functional aspects of Haskell, but without the drawbacks of laziness (for example, you can safely do IO outside the IO monad, and space leaks are less common) and with a simpler type system. There are no…
It seems like a lifetime ago, but I actually spent one year in college mainly learning OCaml. The language is really elegant, but I'm not sure I ever saw a real-life use for it until today.
Unison: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/index.html
In fact I think this is the only software that I know is written in a functional language that I use on a regular basis. I've always figured that said very good things about OCaml. (Not that I've ever gotten around to learning OCaml, mind you.)
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#7OCaml is a highly underappreciated language. The biggest problem is the haphazard syntax, but if you can get over that, it's really a joy to use for application programming. You get the strongly-typed, type-inferred, functional aspects of Haskell, but without the drawbacks of laziness (for example, you can safely do IO outside the IO monad, and space leaks are less common) and with a simpler type system. There are no…
OCaml's largest problems, IMO, are:
1. Global interpreter-lock, and the effect that has on the ability to write multi-threaded programs.
2. False negative proof, the same issue Haskell has. The fact that it's "had its chance" to catch on and hasn't done so marks it as a failure (or "not production ready") in the eyes of people who make decisions.
Scala has better odds than Ocaml and Haskell for this reason alone.
3. The perception that there's a lack of libraries relative to, say, the JVM. I say "perception" because Ocaml has bindings to leverage the C libraries. However, it doesn't have the Java libraries, and those are proving to be an important asset even in un-Javay languages like Clojure.
On Scala, since I'm resigned to the fact that it is more likely to win (and find I like the language a lot) the unresolved question in my mind is: is Scala an acceptable ML? I like Scala a lot and I'm leaning toward "Yes", but I haven't worked with Scala on something big enough to have a fully formed opinion there.
4. (Small one.) The name. I would like it just as much if it were called FishGuts, but names matter in adoption. I think Ocaml's a fine name, but I'm weird.
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems like a lifetime ago, but I actually spent one year in college mainly learning OCaml. The language is really elegant, but I'm not sure I ever saw a real-life use for it until today.
Unison: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/index.html In fact I think this is the only software that I know is written in a functional language that I use on a regular basis. I've always figured that said very good things about OCaml. (Not that I've ever gotten around to learning OCaml, mind you.)
And the author also wrote "Types and programming languages"...
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#9OCaml is a highly underappreciated language. The biggest problem is the haphazard syntax, but if you can get over that, it's really a joy to use for application programming. You get the strongly-typed, type-inferred, functional aspects of Haskell, but without the drawbacks of laziness (for example, you can safely do IO outside the IO monad, and space leaks are less common) and with a simpler type system. There are no…
I find the syntax elegant...
Re: Code iOS Apps in OCaml
#10OCaml is a highly underappreciated language. The biggest problem is the haphazard syntax, but if you can get over that, it's really a joy to use for application programming. You get the strongly-typed, type-inferred, functional aspects of Haskell, but without the drawbacks of laziness (for example, you can safely do IO outside the IO monad, and space leaks are less common) and with a simpler type system. There are no…
Having suffered through C++ for several years, and having enjoyed writing SML/NJ, the syntax doesn't bother me at all. My big problem with OCaml is that the ecosystem is insanely poorly documented, and, if I understand this right (I am definitely not an OCaml expert), fractured. E.g., there's a lot of buzz about Jane Street's library, but, as far as I can tell, your code uses only their library or the built-in one, b…
There are a lot of problems with C++, but I've hardly heard syntax referred to as one of them.