The State of Full-Stack OCaml (with António Monteiro)

2024/9/11

Developer Voices

Frequently requested episodes will be transcribed first

OCaml has one of the best-loved compilers available, and parts of it are surprisingly pluggable, so it’s not surprising that someone would eventually try to wed OCaml with JavaScript and the web browser. In fact, the ecosystem has gone further, and there are now a bevvy of options for people who want to write OCaml and run it in the browser, or want to write OCaml in the browser, or want to write something that looks like JavaScript but runs OCaml on the backend.

Joining me to explore the OCaml-meets-JavaScript world is Antonio Montiero. He’s a key maintainer/contributor for Melange and ReasonML, as well as several other interesting OCaml web projects.

We kick off by discussing the benefits of OCaml and how it clicked with him personally, before we dive into how and why the compiler is being adapted and tweaked to take it to a whole new audience of web-hungry developers.

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The OCaml Platform: https://ocaml.org/platform

OCaml on Discord: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-discord-server/1884

ReasonML: https://reasonml.github.io/en/

What is Melange? https://melange.re/v4.0.0/what-is-melange.html

Melange for React Devs: https://react-book.melange.re/

The Melange Playground: https://melange.re/v4.0.0/playground/

js_of_ocaml: https://github.com/ocsigen/js_of_ocaml