From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: 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 975E2BBAF for ; Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:55:05 +0100 (CET) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AjwEAIsE6kxii1vtXmdsb2JhbACDSpBVjkEXCQoGEgUfiCujVDyCGIRmiQcBBAQBgR2DNnMEhFqJEg X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.59,236,1288566000"; d="scan'208";a="67824680" Received: from nm29-vm1.bullet.mail.sp2.yahoo.com ([98.139.91.237]) by mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr with SMTP; 22 Nov 2010 14:55:04 +0100 Received: from [98.139.91.61] by nm29.bullet.mail.sp2.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 22 Nov 2010 13:55:03 -0000 Received: from [98.139.91.28] by tm1.bullet.mail.sp2.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 22 Nov 2010 13:55:03 -0000 Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp1028.mail.sp2.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 22 Nov 2010 13:55:03 -0000 X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-5 X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 999897.55020.bm@omp1028.mail.sp2.yahoo.com Received: (qmail 77506 invoked by uid 60001); 22 Nov 2010 13:55:02 -0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=yahoo.com; s=s1024; t=1290434102; bh=3tmufei+UaTvDRcUG01AxKEUFBXI/aUUfQtj1oijakQ=; h=Message-ID:X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=Osn2KO7ecLLgH9+CRF825nkmDU4KcHNKjENl6rGxvuhz6LcARk+7Q5JeHDuLE873NABcYis6rcQUjgUM9dRk2v0BEGAEGaEe5edtDZ0H22reu3t/opyB+W5gnaLod/pULqIQ1UIhagSTz5ChknAmHNkEs1Ga07A4Ux/wZUYNjmA= DomainKey-Signature:a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=oBeZCuXuQkAleBoGTi1kP+7JyEbwqQ/upim6NmYriEZnQVOA3hEzheRxKoPjfKdJnqiyGtFces4SmIIcivxitu+irb0yVWgRPmrkAWKjRz4og3pcZ0HYsKQlcjK6RrE8QzIiVVzhmayo9ZjAJuU4cRc7OWMBcZ+V0S+bzLrmAVc=; Message-ID: <538372.76249.qm@web111505.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> X-YMail-OSG: 6rmoyCcVM1mFPAae9ujUPajYQ6f4W0.rEKcTAcnnXgtpQGG rWw7RQvtm.jnhOgOmAVx.rPUGTAICULfVyVjeSre87XaROKokEXeHV0vgWaX 70MTfQzcMWucvctQpr.UWBCPkom_H9P0LyHif_o7P9chGjnTkNELnd30VtUs NpIqcKU.rNdhxNt0TNvRVKdAq2INtAX4u4f5Ef7frAQZUdjiZe1VvuM0U_2G bm2rQNsu5smPIXOvsAFHpNLW6kpooaxmpT9r4HZORAbkjNfyj8OT42f0q_1M 2zqvEBIQdrFiBy_Y6ciGCQw8YEECtrIKW0.ORbe4gPMInuhUj5tTg9yN0em4 RGZmVmA.YZMgGP7ArVq8oTegIz72hRBNgfEu2l.GpVA-- Received: from [213.205.70.204] by web111505.mail.gq1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:55:02 PST X-Mailer: YahooMailClassic/11.4.9 YahooMailWebService/0.8.107.285259 Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:55:02 -0800 (PST) From: Dario Teixeira Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Is OCaml fast? To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr, Thanassis Tsiodras In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Spam: no; 0.00; ocaml:01 ocaml:01 haskell:01 haskell:01 ubc:98 caml-list:01 executables:01 imperative:01 purely:02 functional:02 functional:02 shootout:02 shootout:02 idiomatic:02 black:96 Hi,=0A=0A> I am on the fence about whether to learn OCaml or not, and while= =0A> reading an article called "Why OCaml"=0A> (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~murph= yk/Software/Ocaml/why_ocaml.html),=0A> I saw that OCaml was praised for the= speed of the executables it=0A> generates - and was referred to, speed-wis= e, as "second to none",=0A> except C and C++.=0A=0AYes, Ocaml is fast (more= on that later), but you should consider speed=0Aas just the icing in the c= ake. Besides all the cool language features,=0Awhat makes me recommend Oca= ml to people who -- like you -- may be on=0Athe fence, is that among the no= t so mainstream languages, Ocaml is=0Aperhaps the one people are more likel= y to stick with for actual work=0Aafter they get past the learning stage. = Remember that though Ocaml=0Afavours the functional paradigm, it is flexibl= e enough to support those=0A(few) situations where it actually makes sense = to be imperative and/or=0Ause an object oriented approach, and where a pure= ly functional solution=0Ais just intellectual masturbation.=0A=0A> However,= when I actually went to the Language Shootout page suggested=0A> in the ar= ticle, I found out that OCaml is not 2nd, it is 13th, behind=0A> languages = like Haskell and C#...=0A> (http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/which-pro= gramming-languages-are-fastest.php)=0A> =0A> Is it just hype, then? Or am I= missing something?=0A=0AThere's lies, damn lies, and shootout statistics. = Getting good performance=0Ain Haskell is often something of a black art th= at baffles even gurus. In=0Acontrast, Ocaml has very good "performance pred= ictability". Moreover, it=0Ais possible to get good performance from fairl= y idiomatic Ocaml programmes,=0Awhereas in other languages you may need to = write ugly code which looks like=0Anothing one would write for elegance and= sanity.=0A=0ABest regards,=0ADario Teixeira=0A=0A=0A=0A