[Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[Alain Frisch]

Dear caml-list,

I've just noticed that a recent paper by Yaron Minksy "Why the next 
language you learn should be functional" is discussed on Slashdot, in a 
story called "OCaml For the Masses". That's great! And it's probably a 
good time to make some buzz about OCaml there:

http://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/10/04/1557206/OCaml-For-the-Masses


Alain

Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[Erik de Castro Lopo]

Alain Frisch wrote:

> I've just noticed that a recent paper by Yaron Minksy "Why the next 
> language you learn should be functional" is discussed on Slashdot, in a 
> story called "OCaml For the Masses". That's great! And it's probably a 
> good time to make some buzz about OCaml there:
> 
> http://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/10/04/1557206/OCaml-For-the-Masses

If only so many of the responses weren't so misinformed.

Erik
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Erik de Castro Lopo
http://www.mega-nerd.com/

Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[Adam Richardson]

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On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 6:02 PM, Alain Frisch <alain@frisch.fr> wrote:

> Dear caml-list,
>
> I've just noticed that a recent paper by Yaron Minksy "Why the next
> language you learn should be functional" is discussed on Slashdot, in a
> story called "OCaml For the Masses". That's great! And it's probably a good
> time to make some buzz about OCaml there:
>
> http://developers.slashdot.**org/story/11/10/04/1557206/**
> OCaml-For-the-Masses<http://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/10/04/1557206/OCaml-For-the-Masses>
>
>
> Alain
>

I sincerely believe the article makes some great points.

I would like to do more with OCaml, but I must admit the lack of well
written books available for OCaml has limited the amount of time I've worked
with it. I know that I can expand my knowledge base in Scala and Haskell
quite easily with many great books, but the only book listed in Amazon has
poor reviews.

If a great OCaml guru/teacher wrote a great book, I'm sure it would have
great sales on Amazon (I'd buy it :)

Adam

-- 
Nephtali:  A simple, flexible, fast, and security-focused PHP framework
http://nephtaliproject.com

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Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[Nicolas Bros]

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>
> If a great OCaml guru/teacher wrote a great book, I'm sure it would have
> great sales on Amazon (I'd buy it :)


You may want to read this book :
http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/oreilly-book/html/index.html

It is the english translation of the french book "Développement
d'applications avec Objective Caml":
http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/Livres/ora/DA-OCAML/index.html
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2841771210

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Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[Jean Krivine]

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In the comments:
"Procedural programming is easier for humans to understand: most of us do no
not think in a way that maps easily to functional programming. "

That a very functional thought to me :)

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 7:05 PM, Nicolas Bros <nicolas.bros@gmail.com> wrote:

> If a great OCaml guru/teacher wrote a great book, I'm sure it would have
>> great sales on Amazon (I'd buy it :)
>
>
> You may want to read this book :
> http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/oreilly-book/html/index.html
>
> It is the english translation of the french book "Développement
> d'applications avec Objective Caml":
> http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/Livres/ora/DA-OCAML/index.html
> http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2841771210
>

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Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[rixed]

-[ Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 01:50:01PM +0200, Jean Krivine ]----
> "Procedural programming is easier for humans to understand: most of us do no
> not think in a way that maps easily to functional programming. "
> 
> That a very functional thought to me :)

Don't you think procedurally ?  If so, then skip until end of paragraph.
Otherwise, do you think functionally ?  If so, then you might want to
break out of this discussion altogether.  Else I suggest you do repeat
"I'm part of the herd", and again.  Note: I assert nobody should read
this last sentence.

Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[oliver]

There is a theory (or just hypothesis) on different brains and
therefore thinking styles: predictive vs. functional.

So... maybe, if these ways of thinking are "built in" into
the brains (genetically?), then some people will be
functional programmers and others not ;-)


Ciao,
   Oliver



On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 01:50:01PM +0200, Jean Krivine wrote:
> In the comments:
> "Procedural programming is easier for humans to understand: most of us do no
> not think in a way that maps easily to functional programming. "
> 
> That a very functional thought to me :)
> 
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 7:05 PM, Nicolas Bros <nicolas.bros@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > If a great OCaml guru/teacher wrote a great book, I'm sure it would have
> >> great sales on Amazon (I'd buy it :)
> >
> >
> > You may want to read this book :
> > http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/oreilly-book/html/index.html
> >
> > It is the english translation of the french book "Développement
> > d'applications avec Objective Caml":
> > http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/Livres/ora/DA-OCAML/index.html
> > http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2841771210
> >
> 
> -- 
> Caml-list mailing list.  Subscription management and archives:
> https://sympa-roc.inria.fr/wws/info/caml-list
> Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
> Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs
> 

Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[oliver]

ooops... too tired...

On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 02:30:26PM +0200, oliver wrote:
> There is a theory (or just hypothesis) on different brains and
> therefore thinking styles: predictive vs. functional.

===>  predicative vs. functional



Ciao,
   Oliver

Re: [Caml-list] 'OCaml For the Masses' on Slashdot

[Gerd Stolpmann]

This leads to nowhere. If we look at natural languages (as approximation
to "thinking"), neither paradigm can be well expressed. Sure, we can
describe a sequence of steps easily ("do this, then do that, then do the
third thing"), but it quickly ends when you try to describe loops. There
are also ways of expressing functional thinking in languages ("the
faster I run the quicker I reach the destination" - time as function of
speed).

The issue is probably more that procedural thinking is trained in
programing classes, while functional thinking is not. Neither of the
paradigms is really close to humans as such.

Gerd

Am Freitag, den 14.10.2011, 13:50 +0200 schrieb Jean Krivine:
> In the comments:
> "Procedural programming is easier for humans to understand: most of us
> do no not think in a way that maps easily to functional programming. "
> 
> That a very functional thought to me :) 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 7:05 PM, Nicolas Bros <nicolas.bros@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>                 If a great OCaml guru/teacher wrote a great book, I'm
>                 sure it would have great sales on Amazon (I'd buy
>                 it :)
>          
>         You may want to read this book :
>         http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/oreilly-book/html/index.html
>         
>         
>         It is the english translation of the french book
>         "Développement d'applications avec Objective Caml":
>         http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/Livres/ora/DA-OCAML/index.html
>         http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2841771210
> 

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Contact details:        http://www.camlcity.org/contact.html
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