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ocaml / v2.ocaml.org

Implementation of the ocaml.org website.
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Added bsc to the list of alternative compilers. #1619

Closed fccm closed 2 years ago

fccm commented 2 years ago

Added bsc to the list of alternative compilers.

bsc (the rescript compiler) is also able to translate ocaml code to javascript.

Octachron commented 2 years ago

As far as I know, the rescript compiler does not support OCaml 4.13. Moreover, one of the motivations for the rescript split was to free rescript from the grip of OCaml backward compatibility.

fccm commented 2 years ago

I just put it there because there was js_of_ocaml, so I thought it would be natural to put bsc next to it in case someone want a Javascript backend.

bsc is far more easy to use than js_of_ocaml, so maybe it would be worth talking about it somewhere on the website.

On which page would you recommend to talk about it?

Octachron commented 2 years ago

Rescript may support an OCaml syntax (as a legacy feature) but it is not a javascript backend for OCaml, contrarily to js_of_ocaml. Thus Rescript cannot be easier to use than js_of_ocaml, if the aim is to compile OCaml code.

It might make sense to have a page describing languages inspired or derived from OCaml like F# or Rescript.

fccm commented 2 years ago

This is only a personal opinion. I've tried hard several times to learn js_of_ocaml but never succeed to make even a hello-world work. There was no documentation, no simple example to start with, the js output is cryptic, and there is no community to get some help with. There aren't also libs that come with it.

This is all the opposite for bsc, there's lot of docs, lots of examples and articles, lots of libs, and there's a community that helps you to start. The output is very readable. Beginning with bsc and getting things work was not painful for me, it was enjoyable.

This is only a personal opinion, you don't have to share it. But I know that I'm not the only one with such experience, because I read so several times on the forum about it. @lefessan also shared with me that his students have difficulties to use js_of_ocaml.

I don't want to discredit js_of_ocaml on ocaml.org, I just thought that it would be interesting to share that it's possible to translate ocaml to javascript with bsc in case some people could be interested.

Maybe a full page with an article might make sense, to explain more details than on the release page?

Octachron commented 2 years ago

Using hyperbolic arguments (js_of_ocaml has documentations, libraries, hello world examples and a community) doesn't work really well.

More importantly, you are missing the point that compiling OCaml code is not a supported feature of ReScript. There is a reason why OCaml is never mentioned on the main landing page of https://rescript-lang.org . It would be a disservice to ReScript developers to mention ReScript as a javascript backend for OCaml: it is not the intended goal of Rescript since the split between Reason and ReScript.

dbuenzli commented 2 years ago

This is only a personal opinion. I've tried hard several times to learn js_of_ocaml but never succeed to make even a hello-world work.

@fccm did you try to use it with brr and dune's support ? Brr's docs have a web page howto with a hello world example.

There are also a few manuals here that detail the OCaml to JavaScript FFI in other terms than js_of_ocaml's website. Brr doesn't try to encode JavaScript objects as phantom types which I (and others it seems) find much more usable.

no community to get some help with

People may be less web focused on discuss.ocaml.org. But most technical questions about js_of_ocaml do eventually get an answer.

fccm commented 2 years ago

Hi Daniel, brr looks great, as everything you do! My opinion on the state of using ocaml and js was indeed outdated and stuck in the past. I saw there's melange and ocaml-wasm today in the links in CAMLBOY. It's not really clear which version of rescript melange is a fork from. https://anmonteiro.com/2021/03/on-ocaml-and-the-js-platform/ it look like the direction I will take after bsc don't support ocaml anymore (I'm still using bsc 8.4.2 and I'm happy with it).