From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=5.0 tests=AWL,SPF_FAIL autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from mail3-relais-sop.national.inria.fr (mail3-relais-sop.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.104]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E2CEBBAF for ; Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:27:57 +0100 (CET) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AscDAB9rp0lQRFuwgWdsb2JhbACUfwEBFiLCLoQUBg X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.38,276,1233529200"; d="scan'208";a="23611690" Received: from furbychan.cocan.org ([80.68.91.176]) by mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr with ESMTP/TLS/AES256-SHA; 27 Feb 2009 13:27:55 +0100 Received: from rich by furbychan.cocan.org with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1Ld1op-0005tX-28 for caml-list@inria.fr; Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:27:55 +0000 Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:27:55 +0000 To: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: The new OCaml book (Objective Caml Programming Language by Tim Rentsch) Message-ID: <20090227122755.GA22309@annexia.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) From: Richard Jones X-Spam: no; 0.00; ocaml:01 ocaml:01 chapters:02 chapters:02 caml:02 objective:02 impractical:02 authors:03 theoretical:03 slightly:03 programming:03 solid:95 constructing:04 imo:04 guess:04 I previously mentioned this book on the list and said that I'd been promised a review copy from the publisher: http://www.amazon.com/Objective-Caml-Programming-Language/dp/0981599206 I received the review copy from Abscissa Press yesterday and I have read the first few chapters. This book is in fact the Jason Hickey book which has been floating around on the net for a while, updated by Tim Rentsch who I think is Jason's colleague or student. First impressions are that it is technically solid, well formatted and easy to read, and filled with lots of examples and exercises. The first few chapters spend too long, IMO, on rather impractical examples involving constructing values and interpreting types. (The value restriction appears in Ch.5!) Practical examples of real code come too late, I guess reflecting the university background of the authors. Nevertheless from what I've read so far I think it's a sound book for students and for people who don't mind a slightly theoretical introduction to the language, and I can definitely recommend it. If anyone has any specific questions, they can catch me on IRC #ocaml today. Rich. (Needless to say it's far better than the Apress book) -- Richard Jones Red Hat