From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54500BC2F for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:40:38 +0100 (CET) Received: from pauillac.inria.fr (pauillac.inria.fr [128.93.11.35]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id iAPBebek019643 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:40:38 +0100 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 MAA30768 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:40:37 +0100 (MET) From: whenning@ucsd.edu Received: from acs-webmail.ucsd.edu (acs-webmail.ucsd.edu [132.239.50.19]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id iAPBeZQZ032196 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 12:40:37 +0100 Received: from acs-webmail.ucsd.edu (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by acs-webmail.ucsd.edu (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id iAPBeUub015091 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 03:40:30 -0800 Received: (from nobody@localhost) by acs-webmail.ucsd.edu (8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) id iAPBeUgo015089; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 03:40:30 -0800 Received: from 66.167.163.102 (SquirrelMail authenticated user whenning) by acs-webmail.ucsd.edu with HTTP; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 03:40:30 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <3033.66.167.163.102.1101382830.squirrel@acs-webmail.ucsd.edu> Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 03:40:30 -0800 (PST) Subject: Experiences with learning OCaml? To: caml-list@inria.fr User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 Importance: Normal X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 41A5C4B5.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Miltered: at nez-perce with ID 41A5C4B3.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; ucsd:01 ocaml:01 parentheses:01 haskell:01 ocaml:01 suited:01 lisp:01 checking:01 algorithm:01 functional:02 functional:02 languages:03 seems:03 seems:03 programming:03 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.0 (2004-09-13) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.2 required=5.0 tests=NO_REAL_NAME autolearn=disabled version=3.0.0 X-Spam-Level: Hi, I'm an undergraduate student studying computer science. My course assignments generally use C, C++, or Java, and I find myself pining for something more elegant. That is, I'd like to teach myself a functional programming language of some kind. I don't think I like all the parentheses in Lisp. But I was very impressed by a Haskell implementation of the usual quicksort algorithm which was very concise -- only 5 lines or so. However OCaml seems to have a larger community and has a reputation for fast executation times, so that seems like a better fit. The academic term at my university is ending soon and I'll have a few weeks of free time on my hands -- I was thinking of checking out a suitable text on some functional programming language from the library and working through some of it. Would doing this be difficult if one were sufficiently motivated? I sort of did something similar with C++ a while ago with some amount of success. Although I've of course Googled around for potential books to select, are there any ones particularly suited for someone in my position? Finally, although OCaml looks interesting, would some other functional language be better for someone new to functional programming? If so, which? I ask because I don't know anyone who uses functional languages or even knows how to use one. Thanks. -Warren