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Seems like financial/quant computing would be a natural fit. The author mentions ocaml being well suited for general programming needs - Anyone using ocaml (or

Seems like financial/quant computing would be a natural fit. The author mentions ocaml being well suited for general programming needs - Anyone using ocaml (or haskell/f#/etc.) for real production code? Edit: should have mentioned this earlier for an example - xmonad is written in haskell

batterseapower 15y ago
Several investment banks are using these languages in production (BarCap (F#) and Standard Chartered (Haskell) are the names that come immediately to mind). And of course Minsky's employer, Jane Street Capital, writes everything in OCaml. There are plenty of commercial users outside the financial sector too but those users tend to be smaller companies.
- fhars 15y ago
  Like that small software vendor from seattle http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/z3/ml/z3.html http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/z3/m... http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slam/default.aspx http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slam/default.as...
- clavalle 15y ago
  Whenever I see OCaml brought up, it is nearly always by Minsky. Is it that very few people use it in general? That it is particularly well suited to the problems a private hedge fund faces (oxymoron I know, but I don't know how else to describe Jane Street)? Or that Minsky just happens to be vocal in the internet circles I tend to gravitate toward?
  - eru 15y ago
    Jane Street is a `prop shop' in the lingo of the industry. You are right, OCaml doesn't see too much use outside of Jane Street, Citrix and a few others. I think the academics mostly left it in favour of Haskell. Also the owner of the OCaml project didn't embrace community development early on. It's more like a cathedral than a bazaar. They are signs showing to change, but it's probably already too late for mainstream popularity.
LeafStorm 15y ago
The compiler for haXe (http://www.haxe.org/ http://www.haxe.org/) is written in OCaml. That's actually how I ran across OCaml to begin with.
- ArbitraryLimits 15y ago
  Wow, I had no idea haxe was still around. I looked at using it about 4-5 years ago and dismissed it as not ready for prime time, but that looks like a reasonably active community.
  - boofar 15y ago
    If you're interested in haxe make sure to check out haxenme[1] as well. I haven't worked with it yet, but plan to do so. [1] http://www.haxenme.org/ http://www.haxenme.org/
  - LeafStorm 15y ago
    Honestly I'm quite surprised that it hasn't taken off more - the language itself is very nice and well-designed, and the way it handles multiple platforms is surprisingly elegant. The only real complaint I have with it is that the documentation is a bit disjointed.
dons 15y ago
http://cufp.org/ http://cufp.org/ is held every year, and has many interesting stories. http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell_in_industry http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell_in_industry has experience reports for Haskell. Galois and Standard Chartered both have large Haskell teams, for example (I've worked for both).
smosher 15y ago
John Carmack mentioned OCaml and Haskell at the last QuakeCon (on the topics of game scripting and static analysis), citing performance and hiring issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zgYG-_ha28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zgYG-_ha28 (1:10ish) I'm not sure about the performance issue. If it stays within a reasonable (low single-digit) factor I think the hit is worth the quality guarantees you can get out of it. The hiring/education issue is probably the #1 reason so few attempts are made in this direction.
eru 15y ago
Citrix uses Haskell and OCaml in production code. It's predominately open-source, too.

batterseapower 15y ago

Several investment banks are using these languages in production (BarCap (F#) and Standard Chartered (Haskell) are the names that come immediately to mind). And of course Minsky's employer, Jane Street Capital, writes everything in OCaml. There are plenty of commercial users outside the financial sector too but those users tend to be smaller companies.

fhars 15y ago
Like that small software vendor from seattle http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/z3/ml/z3.html http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/z3/m... http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slam/default.aspx http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slam/default.as...
clavalle 15y ago
Whenever I see OCaml brought up, it is nearly always by Minsky. Is it that very few people use it in general? That it is particularly well suited to the problems a private hedge fund faces (oxymoron I know, but I don't know how else to describe Jane Street)? Or that Minsky just happens to be vocal in the internet circles I tend to gravitate toward?
- eru 15y ago
  Jane Street is a `prop shop' in the lingo of the industry. You are right, OCaml doesn't see too much use outside of Jane Street, Citrix and a few others. I think the academics mostly left it in favour of Haskell. Also the owner of the OCaml project didn't embrace community development early on. It's more like a cathedral than a bazaar. They are signs showing to change, but it's probably already too late for mainstream popularity.

LeafStorm 15y ago

The compiler for haXe (http://www.haxe.org/ http://www.haxe.org/) is written in OCaml. That's actually how I ran across OCaml to begin with.

ArbitraryLimits 15y ago
Wow, I had no idea haxe was still around. I looked at using it about 4-5 years ago and dismissed it as not ready for prime time, but that looks like a reasonably active community.
- boofar 15y ago
  If you're interested in haxe make sure to check out haxenme[1] as well. I haven't worked with it yet, but plan to do so. [1] http://www.haxenme.org/ http://www.haxenme.org/
- LeafStorm 15y ago
  Honestly I'm quite surprised that it hasn't taken off more - the language itself is very nice and well-designed, and the way it handles multiple platforms is surprisingly elegant. The only real complaint I have with it is that the documentation is a bit disjointed.

dons 15y ago

http://cufp.org/ http://cufp.org/ is held every year, and has many interesting stories. http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell_in_industry http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell_in_industry has experience reports for Haskell. Galois and Standard Chartered both have large Haskell teams, for example (I've worked for both).

smosher 15y ago

John Carmack mentioned OCaml and Haskell at the last QuakeCon (on the topics of game scripting and static analysis), citing performance and hiring issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zgYG-_ha28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zgYG-_ha28 (1:10ish) I'm not sure about the performance issue. If it stays within a reasonable (low single-digit) factor I think the hit is worth the quality guarantees you can get out of it. The hiring/education issue is probably the #1 reason so few attempts are made in this direction.

eru 15y ago

Citrix uses Haskell and OCaml in production code. It's predominately open-source, too.