Re:Try OCaml
by joshmarlow on Saturday September 08, 2018 @07:14AM
(#17940429)
> not purely functional for those who don't want to go all the way in that direction
That's why I first loved it. I liked what I knew of Haskell but was skeptical of the Monadic IO system (I've since warmed to the idea). OCaml was in a perfect sweet spot in my opinion.
Also it feels a bit less abstract in some difficult to define way - I don't think Monads really clicked for me until I was using Options in OCaml.
I'll also second the opinion that as a _language_ OCaml is more ergonomic than Rust. However, I find that Rust is more _community ergonomic_ - it's easier to find libraries and contribute to them. Related to that - the build process is just spot-on. With OCaml, I found myself tripping over obscure errors in my build process about every month or so.
For me, OCaml is a bit like the one that got away.
But I'm excited about the momentum behind the Reason project!
That's why I first loved it. I liked what I knew of Haskell but was skeptical of the Monadic IO system (I've since warmed to the idea). OCaml was in a perfect sweet spot in my opinion.
Also it feels a bit less abstract in some difficult to define way - I don't think Monads really clicked for me until I was using Options in OCaml.
I'll also second the opinion that as a _language_ OCaml is more ergonomic than Rust. However, I find that Rust is more _community ergonomic_ - it's easier to find libraries and contribute to them. Related to that - the build process is just spot-on. With OCaml, I found myself tripping over obscure errors in my build process about every month or so.
For me, OCaml is a bit like the one that got away.
But I'm excited about the momentum behind the Reason project!