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I tried using Reason for a side project. Getting the build tools and the package manager for ocaml took too long so I gave up.

chenglou 9y ago
If you're still willing to give it a second chance, we've got https://github.com/chenglou/reason-react-example https://github.com/chenglou/reason-react-example which uses only npm Sorry for the crappy initial experience.
- tyoverby 9y ago
  I did see that, but I discounted it because I wanted to make a serverside (native, not serverside-js) application, and I assumed that the reason-react-example was only for making compile-to-javascript applications.
  - tekknolagi 9y ago
    If you'd like, I can help you get set up on Discord: http://discord.gg/reasonml http://discord.gg/reasonml
  - jordwalke 9y ago
    Just so we don't miss the opportunity to learn - would you mind stating what you would find valuable in a toolchain for building a server side native system? What kind of things about project management/install appeal to you?
    - Flow 9y ago
      When will ReasonML use the latest OCaml? Maybe it doesn't matter much, but it's still quite an old version.
      - jordwalke 9y ago
        We are compatible with 4.03 and 4.04 via opam!
        Flow 9y ago
        That's great to hear. It's often a bad sign when base-something can't be upgraded and lags for years. I think you need to update this page since it mentions 4.02.3 still. https://github.com/facebook/reason/blob/master/README.md#install-via-npm https://github.com/facebook/reason/blob/master/README.md#ins...
        jordwalke 9y ago
        Thanks for the reminder.
    - tyoverby 9y ago
      The most important part of language tooling for me is reproducability. I should be able to do the following to any project: git clone <project name> && cd <project name> <build tool> build And have it fetch all of that projects dependencies, and then build the entire system. Anything that requires machine-wide package installation is immediately disqualified (user-wide package installation is almost as bad).
  - david-given 9y ago
    I had much the same experience. I'd be interested to try it for general purpose programming, but the setup procedure is so tied into doing web work that I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing. What's Reason's debugger story like?
    - bordoley 9y ago
      Red (https://github.com/reasonml/red https://github.com/reasonml/red) provides a useable frontend to the ocaml debugger. If your code compiles with bucklescript (most code will), the debug experience using node and the chrome inspector is surprisingly good even without source maps. The compiled ocaml maps to remarkably straight forward javascript for most code. I used both while developing Immutable-re.
rixed 9y ago
May I ask what you end up using?
- tyoverby 9y ago
  Ended up just writing it in Rust which I've been using for years now. I wanted to try something new, it's hard to compete with Cargo for package management + build tools.

chenglou 9y ago

If you're still willing to give it a second chance, we've got https://github.com/chenglou/reason-react-example https://github.com/chenglou/reason-react-example which uses only npm Sorry for the crappy initial experience.

tyoverby 9y ago
I did see that, but I discounted it because I wanted to make a serverside (native, not serverside-js) application, and I assumed that the reason-react-example was only for making compile-to-javascript applications.
- tekknolagi 9y ago
  If you'd like, I can help you get set up on Discord: http://discord.gg/reasonml http://discord.gg/reasonml
- jordwalke 9y ago
  Just so we don't miss the opportunity to learn - would you mind stating what you would find valuable in a toolchain for building a server side native system? What kind of things about project management/install appeal to you?
  - Flow 9y ago
    When will ReasonML use the latest OCaml? Maybe it doesn't matter much, but it's still quite an old version.
    - jordwalke 9y ago
      We are compatible with 4.03 and 4.04 via opam!
      - Flow 9y ago
        That's great to hear. It's often a bad sign when base-something can't be upgraded and lags for years. I think you need to update this page since it mentions 4.02.3 still. https://github.com/facebook/reason/blob/master/README.md#install-via-npm https://github.com/facebook/reason/blob/master/README.md#ins...
        jordwalke 9y ago
        Thanks for the reminder.
  - tyoverby 9y ago
    The most important part of language tooling for me is reproducability. I should be able to do the following to any project: git clone <project name> && cd <project name> <build tool> build And have it fetch all of that projects dependencies, and then build the entire system. Anything that requires machine-wide package installation is immediately disqualified (user-wide package installation is almost as bad).
- david-given 9y ago
  I had much the same experience. I'd be interested to try it for general purpose programming, but the setup procedure is so tied into doing web work that I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing. What's Reason's debugger story like?
  - bordoley 9y ago
    Red (https://github.com/reasonml/red https://github.com/reasonml/red) provides a useable frontend to the ocaml debugger. If your code compiles with bucklescript (most code will), the debug experience using node and the chrome inspector is surprisingly good even without source maps. The compiled ocaml maps to remarkably straight forward javascript for most code. I used both while developing Immutable-re.

rixed 9y ago

May I ask what you end up using?

tyoverby 9y ago
Ended up just writing it in Rust which I've been using for years now. I wanted to try something new, it's hard to compete with Cargo for package management + build tools.