OCaml and its undying fans [pdf] (opens in new tab)

(cambridge.org)

2 pointsrossamurphy1y ago2 comments

2 comments

I just read this great (short and sweet) paper by Yaron Minsky and Stephen Weeks on Ocaml, which describes their view on why Ocaml gives Jane Street a significant advantage over competitors.

However, the authors point out some key weaknesses of Ocaml: for example, it lacks a concurrent GC, its optimiser isn’t very good, etc.

This paper, though, was written in 2008. I wanted to ask Ocaml engineers here on HN for a 2024 update on the state of Ocaml. Do these negative aspects of the language still exist? And if so, how do you get around them?

I’ve noticed a lot of HFT funds, market makers, etc. all migrating to Rust.. which obviously doesn’t have the above issues (who needs a concurrent GC when you don’t even have a GC).. but Jane is sticking with Ocaml afaik. I wanted to learn more about that decision.

Thanks!

yawaramin1y ago

I assume by 'concurrent GC' you mean multicore parallelism in the same process, in which case, yes, OCaml has it now: https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-5-0-0-is-out/10974

And Jane Street have long since moved forward into even more advanced territory. They are now trying to add Rust-like ownership guarantees: https://blog.janestreet.com/oxidizing-ocaml-ownership/

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