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by implicit 4036 days ago
This is very consistently my biggest problem with OCaml: it just doesn't follow conventions set in other ecosystems. I predict this is the sole reason it could never be "the next Java."

It's worth noting, however, that I've had very, very few problems with the semantic properties of the language. I think the slog is worth it for that reason.
1 comments
rbehrends 4036 days ago
> This is very consistently my biggest problem with OCaml: it just doesn't follow conventions set in other ecosystems.

Well, the reason is that Caml predates those ecosystems; the original Caml was released nearly a decade before Java [1], and ML itself dates back to the 1970s.

[1] http://caml.inria.fr/about/history.en.html

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implicit 4036 days ago
Right. I mean only to say that OCaml's superficial strangeness is regrettably offputting.

Talk of syntax is almost always history and religion, not science.

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