From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Original-To: caml-list@sympa.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@sympa.inria.fr Received: from mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr (mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.83]) by sympa.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0F2337EE51 for ; Wed, 29 May 2013 05:06:08 +0200 (CEST) Received-SPF: None (mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr: no sender authenticity information available from domain of oliver@first.in-berlin.de) identity=pra; client-ip=192.109.42.8; receiver=mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr; envelope-from="oliver@first.in-berlin.de"; x-sender="oliver@first.in-berlin.de"; x-conformance=sidf_compatible Received-SPF: None (mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr: no sender authenticity information available from domain of oliver@first.in-berlin.de) identity=mailfrom; client-ip=192.109.42.8; receiver=mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr; envelope-from="oliver@first.in-berlin.de"; x-sender="oliver@first.in-berlin.de"; x-conformance=sidf_compatible Received-SPF: None (mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr: no sender authenticity information available from domain of postmaster@einhorn.in-berlin.de) identity=helo; client-ip=192.109.42.8; receiver=mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr; envelope-from="oliver@first.in-berlin.de"; x-sender="postmaster@einhorn.in-berlin.de"; x-conformance=sidf_compatible X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: Ak8CAFJvpVHAbSoIe2dsb2JhbABZhnS5VYUhgQUWDgEBCwsKCBQEJIIjAQEEASNWEAsJBQoCAgUhAgIPBRgxiBoGBKlNkX4WgRCNbweCQTJhA48HiDOUUg X-IPAS-Result: Ak8CAFJvpVHAbSoIe2dsb2JhbABZhnS5VYUhgQUWDgEBCwsKCBQEJIIjAQEEASNWEAsJBQoCAgUhAgIPBRgxiBoGBKlNkX4WgRCNbweCQTJhA48HiDOUUg X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.87,762,1363129200"; d="scan'208";a="19375395" Received: from einhorn.in-berlin.de ([192.109.42.8]) by mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr with ESMTP/TLS/DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA; 29 May 2013 05:06:07 +0200 X-Envelope-From: oliver@first.in-berlin.de Received: from first (e178010201.adsl.alicedsl.de [85.178.10.201]) (authenticated bits=0) by einhorn.in-berlin.de (8.13.6/8.13.6/Debian-1) with ESMTP id r4T365bJ030367 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Wed, 29 May 2013 05:06:05 +0200 Received: by first (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 4E614154066B; Wed, 29 May 2013 05:06:05 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 29 May 2013 05:06:05 +0200 From: oliver To: Jeff Meister Cc: Francois Berenger , Caml List Message-ID: <20130529030605.GA4626@siouxsie> References: <20130526150008.GA2014@siouxsie> <20130526234911.41866xca7wgoirfb@webmail.in-berlin.de> <51A30E01.5070300@freenet.de> <20130527185345.e01a7733ac652f89f4e400f7@mega-nerd.com> <51A353BE.5030009@freenet.de> <51A40590.4090501@riken.jp> <20130528024413.GA4602@siouxsie> <51A4272F.8050803@riken.jp> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang_at_IN-Berlin_e.V. on 192.109.42.8 Subject: Re: Problems to get larger user base ... (Re: [Caml-list] OCaml's variables) On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 07:39:56PM -0700, Jeff Meister wrote: > I hesitate to recommend Part I of the OCaml Manual as an introduction for > new users because it is so terse and dense. It describes the core language > on a single HTML page. Powerful features of great consequence are covered > rapidly. For example, variant types are relegated to a single section with > only three example types. [...] Yes, I think this is a good description. Today I see this intro and think: wow, nice. When I started with OCaml, I needed other ressources too. I also had some small meetings with scheme, before I found the way to OCaml/Haskell. There were no good books available on LISP at that time, otherwise I might have explored that (eve though I hate these many parantheses). > > I do not mean to complain about the OCaml Manual; its succinctness is a > virtue. It assumes I am competent and does not waste my time. Yes, good point. Also, when coming back to OCaml after a longer pause is made easier by this intro. Or just to lookup some OOP stuff from OCaml, somethink like a "quickref" or rather "quicktut". I think one problem might be, that there are not many PRINTED books on OCaml available. For crucial knowledge I prefer real books printed on real paper over the pdf- and ebook-stuff. There are (many?) books on Haskell, but for OCaml it's like in a desert. Maybe thats the reason, why the OCaml mascot is a camel. ;-) Ciao, Oliver