[jallmann]

OCaml is usually statically compiled with ocamlopt, so distribution is pretty easy. As long as build/deploy platforms match, then you're good to go. Shared libraries only come into the picture for unusual cases, eg FFI.

OCaml tooling has also gotten a lot better over the past few years, mainly because of OPAM. The library count has exploded, and the language still gets regular point-releases with improvements designed to aid tooling, such as extension points.

[djur]

The last serious project I tried to do with OCaml (maybe 4 months ago) was impeded by a ton of dependency problems (this library in OPAM says it depends on this other library, but it doesn't compile because the latter has changed; this dependency won't build in OCaml version .X but another one won't build in .X-1) and ecosystem sparseness (two partially-complete, years-old libraries to do the same thing, etc.). I was eventually stopped in my tracks by an impressively opaque camlp4 error.

(My favorite example is when in #ocaml I asked what testing tools people used; the most positive answer was along the lines of "there's OUnit, but I don't know anything about it".)

There seems to be three awkwardly coexisting OCaml communities: the old academic crowd, the Jane Street people, and a crowd of clueless newbies like myself. It's a really great language, but the ecosystem is going through some growing pains right now.