Compile OCaml to JavaScript, use ReactJS, bindings to ReactJS, several examples | Hacker News Reader

Compile OCaml to JavaScript, use ReactJS, bindings to ReactJS, several examples

github.com

82 pointse_d_g_a_r29 comments

For those interested in this, https://github.com/bloomberg/bucklescript is an alternate (albeit new) OCaml to JS compiler. There's already talk about supporting JSX syntax: https://github.com/bloomberg/bucklescript/issues/162

Differences from js_of_ocaml (not an easy find)

Js_of_ocaml takes lowlevel bytecode from OCaml compiler, BuckleScript takes the highlevel rawlambda representation from OCaml compiler

Js_of_ocaml focuses more on existing OCaml eco-system(opam) while BuckleScript's major goal is to target npm

Js_of_ocaml and BuckleScript have slightly different runtime encoding in several places, for example, BuckleScript encodes OCaml Array as JS Array while js_of_ocaml requires its index 0 to be of value 0.

Both projects are improving quickly, so this can change in the future!

I haven't really gotten into much ML yet, and I'm curious to hear what people knowledgeable with OCaml think about http://facebook.github.io/reason/

The name makes it impossible to research to find any blog posts or anything, but the familiar syntax alone might make it at least a first step for me.

I don't claim to be knowledgeable with OCaml, but I use it on and off since a couple of years and wrote about my thoughts when it was first released[0]. tl;dr: don't like the syntax, for the most part it's worse than OCaml itself. The rest is alright and helps the OCaml ecosystem as well, the focus on better tooling is good.

[0]: https://xivilization.net/~marek/blog/2016/05/19/reason-lets-...

Speaking for myself, I think Reason is a very good thing and rewriting this in Reason or adding a Reason layer is a goal/TODO.

That's awesome and great work.

I know it's dumb that the thing holding me back from OCaml is the syntax, but after giving up on an Om project I've come to accept js will always be the greatest common denominator.

Maybe consider Scala? It's an ML family language with more familiar syntax, and also has a Javascript backend.

I don't blame you, ES6 can be stupid concise and enjoyable. I practice most of my algorithms prep coding in it.

As I recall, Reason is the current project of React originator Jordan Walke and React contributor Cheng Lou. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Facebook project emerge that allows you to author React apps in Reason with Bucklescript.

The search term is reasonml.

Sander sent a [Pull Request](https://github.com/facebook/reason/pull/647) to [Reason](http://facebook.github.io/reason/) which adds JSX syntax (which many React developers have found helpful)

Reason doesn't yet work with Edgar(OP)'s React bindings yet, but it could easily (and therefore JSX would work as well).

In the same vein, there are also some F# to JS compiler projects such as Funscript (http://funscript.info/) and Fable (https://github.com/fsprojects/Fable). F# is an open-source Ocaml inspired language for .net.

Also plugging Websharper (http://websharper.com/) which is a full web framework that includes a F# to JS compiler to write the client-side part of the code.

Though you can use just the compiler inside a regular ASP.NET MVC project, if you so choose.

FYI: you can try bucklescript compiler in browser, and see generated JS code side by side instantly https://bloomberg.github.io/bucklescript/js-demo/

opam version is a little bit behind curve, use `opam pin add -y reactjs git@github.com:fxfactorial/ocaml-reactjs.git`

I've been learning OCaml and hoped I could find something like this. Thank you.

Thanks! Star it if you like it, use it and open issues if any arise.

Sean just made this awesome much more real world usage example of a TODO MVC : https://www.dropbox.com/s/um29z2793ta7s9l/todomvc_state_repl...

ClojureScript is better than that, except for the type system.

It's probably worth elaborating your opinion here. I've used ClojureScript heavily and feel I have a good sense of the comparison, but someone else reading your comment wouldn't be any better informed for it.

I'm genuinely curious as to your comparison though, would love to read it!

How is the performance?

Imho, we need an equivalent of the "great programming language shootout" for all the AltJS languages.

For bucklescript, the performance is excellent, better than handwritten JS: https://github.com/bloomberg/bucklescript#more-examples-1

Isn't this a less polished version of Elm?

This has nothing to do with elm..

Why?

A sane, powerful type system is actually enough of a rationale and a selling point, at least for me.

Also, allowing side-effects while still providing the mentioned type system makes it potentially much easier to integrate with existing JS code.

Another reason for it being "much easier to integrate with existing JS code" is strict evaluation.

Haskell is lazy, which means using GHCJS to compile it to JS produces code full of explicit thunks (think of promises). Both Elm and PureScript are compile-to-JS-languages that inherit a lot from Haskell, but not it's laziness.

You should give one of the OCaml languages a try. OCaml or F#. They have some very pleasant properties.

Generally this whole idea would make sense when you are writing a web application and you are using OCaml or F# on the server and want to use it for the client code too. Same justification for using node.js, but in reverse.

But I know that the Ionide plugin for Atom and VSCode is written in F# compiled to javascript just because the developers like to code in F#

I got downloaded for asking Why. Seriously sad.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com