From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id GAA21663; Wed, 28 Mar 2001 06:37:49 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id GAA21659 for ; Wed, 28 Mar 2001 06:37:49 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from shell5.ba.best.com (shell5.ba.best.com [206.184.139.136]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.10.0) with ESMTP id f2S4blP19541 for ; Wed, 28 Mar 2001 06:37:47 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from localhost (bpr@localhost) by shell5.ba.best.com (8.9.3/8.9.2/best.sh) with ESMTP id UAA12030; Tue, 27 Mar 2001 20:37:40 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 20:37:40 -0800 (PST) From: Brian Rogoff To: John Max Skaller cc: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Why People Aren't Using OCAML? (was Haskell) In-Reply-To: <3AC12586.E96D150E@ozemail.com.au> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Wed, 28 Mar 2001, John Max Skaller wrote: > Brian Rogoff wrote: > > > The main difficulties we have faced have been -- > > > a) Education - Out here even for people skilled in scheme and some other > > > functional languages, it is challenging to learn ocaml. > > > > What have the issues been? I hate to mention this again (and again, ...) but > > I find that beginners and non-experts stumble over syntax a lot. > > The main problem is that the Tutorial and Reference are weak. > If the Ocaml Consortium gets off the ground, this ought to be one > of it's first tasks (i.e., hire a tech writer, not a programmer!) Can one of the translators comment on the status of the O'Reilly book translation? Once that's available people can modify it as the language changes. > I am constantly stumbling over syntax: even when the underlying > principles are clear, it is hard to find the right syntax, and it > is even harder to comprehend which constructions are actually > supported by the compiler. My main source of information is postings > to this list. The mailing list archive has been a great source of help to me too. > > I would have said that it's ideal for VLSI design software (any other EDA > > hackers out there?) so maybe it's just ideal for everything? > > No. It isn't so good for low level systems software, (use C or C++) Sorry, I was trying to be funny. As usual, jokes are too much of a serious business to be attempted by amateurs. I'll postfix all of my lame attempts at humor with ":-)" in the future :-) -- Brian ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr. Archives: http://caml.inria.fr