The new OCaml book (Objective Caml Programming Language by Tim Rentsch)

[Richard Jones <rich@annexia.org>]

I previously mentioned this book on the list and said that I'd been
promised a review copy from the publisher:

http://www.amazon.com/Objective-Caml-Programming-Language/dp/0981599206

I received the review copy from Abscissa Press yesterday and I have
read the first few chapters.  This book is in fact the Jason Hickey
book which has been floating around on the net for a while, updated by
Tim Rentsch who I think is Jason's colleague or student.

First impressions are that it is technically solid, well formatted and
easy to read, and filled with lots of examples and exercises.

The first few chapters spend too long, IMO, on rather impractical
examples involving constructing values and interpreting types.  (The
value restriction appears in Ch.5!)  Practical examples of real code
come too late, I guess reflecting the university background of the
authors.

Nevertheless from what I've read so far I think it's a sound book for
students and for people who don't mind a slightly theoretical
introduction to the language, and I can definitely recommend it.

If anyone has any specific questions, they can catch me on IRC #ocaml
today.

Rich.

(Needless to say it's far better than the Apress book)

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat