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Learn OCaml

(ocaml-sf.org)
203 points smartmic | 3 comments | 27 Jun 25 20:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.215s | source
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another_twist ◴[28 Jun 25 05:13 UTC] No.44402433[source]▶
Is OCaml still worth learning these days ? Feels like plenty of languages are evolving quite well and most things can be done in imperative langs like Go/Java with pretty concise code and certainly better perf.
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zulban ◴[28 Jun 25 06:57 UTC] No.44402790[source]▶
No. Not even a little.

Look at the latest stack overflow developer surveys. It will tell you how much the international community chooses to use (or not) ocaml. To your question, that's people deciding whether it's worth learning.

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1. another_twist ◴[28 Jun 25 07:46 UTC] No.44402932[source]▶
Yeah but most of the time you learn a language because it changes your way of thinking. I want to pick OCaml for my next project, almost did. But decided against since Java had an ecosystem, tooling and really good performance.
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2. kzrdude ◴[28 Jun 25 08:42 UTC] No.44403177[source]▶
Yes for your general education I think you should learn a functional language. This is how I think about it, at least.
3. zulban ◴[01 Jul 25 12:34 UTC] No.44433283[source]▶
"Yeah but most of the time you learn a language because it changes your way of thinking."

For you and I maybe, but no. This is the HN bubble speaking. Most people learn a programming language to get a job or to do something they want to do.

I learn CS for fun too but I hold no illusions about the rest of the world.

"But decided against since Java had an ecosystem, tooling and really good performance."

Correct. Ocaml is not practical for projects or businesses. That's why you didn't pick it.