Why OCaml, Why Now?

#1

Post by croyd » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 4:48 PM UTC

Why OCaml, Why Now?
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Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#2

Post by fnbr » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 4:59 PM UTC

This might be entirely superficial of me, but I always preferred Haskell over OCaml simply because OCaml required me to type ";;" after every line.

The only real reason that I can see to choose OCaml over Haskell is that if you learn OCaml, you might be able to work at Jane Street. Is there a strong argument for abandoning my Haskell-ing for OCaml?

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#3

Post by avsm » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:03 PM UTC

fnbr wrote: post #2

This might be entirely superficial of me, but I always preferred Haskell over OCaml simply because OCaml required me to type ";;" after every line. The only real reason that I can see to choose OCaml over Haskell is that if you learn OCaml, you might be able to work at Jane Street. Is there a strong argument for abandoning my Haskell-ing for OCaml?

> This might be entirely superficial of me, but I always preferred Haskell over OCaml simply because OCaml required me to type ";;" after every line.

That's easily fixed: only the toplevel requires ;; (to commence evaluation of the phrases you've typed in). Just don't use it in normal code and everything will parse fine.

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#4

Post by chimeracoder » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:06 PM UTC

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 the OCaml vs. Haskell discussion that are far more important.

> JS is the only realistic way to write web apps

Javascript is the only realistic way to write the front-end of webapps. But that doesn't mean you're wedded to it for your backend technology. And I don't think either OCaml or Haskell have sufficiently advanced DOM bindings, etc. that I'd recommend using either one for client-side work in the browser.

[0] I'm not sure if this is a flamewar topic for car nerds - my point is to pick two high-end luxury cars that are both well-respected and each have their own merits.

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#5

Post by lmm » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:09 PM UTC

For me Scala has been the not-quite-as-good-as-haskell-but-more-industrially-acceptable language. I'd be very interested to see a more neutral comparison of functional languages for compile-to-JS, because if anything Haskell seems more popular for that - I hadn't heard anything about compiling OCaml to JS before this.

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#6

Post by detrino » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:15 PM UTC

fnbr wrote: post #2

This might be entirely superficial of me, but I always preferred Haskell over OCaml simply because OCaml required me to type ";;" after every line. The only real reason that I can see to choose OCaml over Haskell is that if you learn OCaml, you might be able to work at Jane Street. Is there a strong argument for abandoning my Haskell-ing for OCaml?

;; is a special token used only in the REPL to force evaluation, it is not something you ever use in real code.

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#7

Post by copergi » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:18 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…

I write all my javascript in haskell, and haven't had any problems. What do you need/want "DOM bindings" for?

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#8

Post by oddthink » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:21 PM UTC

lmm wrote: post #5

For me Scala has been the not-quite-as-good-as-haskell-but-more-industrially-acceptable language. I'd be very interested to see a more neutral comparison of functional languages for compile-to-JS, because if anything Haskell seems more popular for that - I hadn't heard anything about compiling OCaml to JS before this.

I just started at a Microsoft shop a few months ago (first time for everything), and I actually quite like F#, now that I've had a little while to play with it. It's a good contender for the NQAGAHBMIAL throne.

Having used CMUCL/SBCL for a while, I always found ocaml's "well, you can compile your code, but then you can't run it in the REPL" to be off-putting. (For my purposes the CLR JIT compiler for F# is good enough.)

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#9

Post by bsaul » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:23 PM UTC

How do those "to js" code generator behave when used together with frameworks like backbone or angular ?

I know things like typescript or dart have special versions of the framworks, but i'm curious to know how the ocaml to js tools behave ( since i've searched for a decent strongly typed server side technology for years, that would be an argument for me to try that language).

Re: Why OCaml, Why Now?

#10

Post by rprospero » Mon, Mar 17, 2014, 5:30 PM UTC

copergi wrote: post #7

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…

I write all my javascript in haskell, and haven't had any problems. What do you need/want "DOM bindings" for?

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?