Why OCaml, Why Now?

Post by coolsunglasses » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 7:36 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #4

I'm glad that the author is picking up a new functional programming language, but choosing OCaml over Haskell because of support for the Javascript implementations strikes me as choosing a BMW over a Mercedes[0] because of the number of cupholders it has. If you don't have a particular goal in mind (ie, "I work at Jane Street and need to be compatible with our existing code"), there are a number of other factors in t…

Post by lpw25 » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 7:48 PM UTC

bunderbunder wrote: post #40

Considering how strongly opposed the author is to dynamic typing, I'm actually kind of surprised they'd consider OCaml's type system to be acceptable. Technically, yes, it's a statically typed system. But its use of structural typing instead of nominative typing effectively means it takes half the compiler assistance you can get out of static type checking and chucks it out the window. Using structural typing means t…

Post by jamii » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 7:49 PM UTC

bunderbunder wrote: post #40

Considering how strongly opposed the author is to dynamic typing, I'm actually kind of surprised they'd consider OCaml's type system to be acceptable. Technically, yes, it's a statically typed system. But its use of structural typing instead of nominative typing effectively means it takes half the compiler assistance you can get out of static type checking and chucks it out the window. Using structural typing means t…

    module M = 
    struct
       type newtons = int
       let inc some_newtons = some_newtons + 1
    end :
    sig
       type newtons = int
       val inc : newtons -> newtons
    end

    M.inc 1 (* this works *)

    module M = 
    struct
       type newtons = int
       let inc some_newtons = some_newtons + 1
       let in_newtons x = x 
    end :
    sig 
       type newtons
       val inc : newtons -> newtons
       val in_newtons : int -> newtons
    end

    M.inc 1 (* type error *)
    M.inc (in_newtons 1) (* this works *)

Post by jamii » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 7:59 PM UTC

tel wrote: post #29

lholden wrote: post #20

I've found it interesting that OCaml hasn't had more interest given the amount of recent momentum in Haskell. Haskell is an Ivory Tower. The features that generally draw one to the language also tend to be the things that eventually push one away. Haskell has grown a lot over the years however as the language evolves to allow general programming within a pure framework. OCaml on the other hand tends to make a comprom…

I feel it's similar to any competitive environment: differentiation requires making strong tradeoffs. Haskell's choice of tradeoffs---while initially very ivory tower---have led to to become a strongly differentiated language. You not only learn how HM typing and full commitment FP feel, but also how to structure code purely, compose effects, and abuse laziness. So for the very same reasons you give---Haskell has mad…

Post by rprospero » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 8:13 PM UTC

nightski wrote: post #16

rprospero wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who would like to write his javascript in Haskell, how do you put text on the page without interfacing with the browser's DOM?

http://elm-lang.org/ for example. To display text in the browser you would use - main = plainText "Hello, World!" From the page: "Elm is a functional language that compiles to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript". So yes, technically this is working with the DOM. But you are not writing code that interacts with a "DOM binding" directly per se.