In article <4664c435$0$8725$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>, Jon Harrop <jon@ffconsultancy.com> wrote:
> Jeffrey J Weimer wrote: > > I've never heard of OCaml until now. My brief overview tells me, I won't > > realize any benefit from using it versus what I have now. > > > > I use Maple for symbolic math (our university has a site license). When > > I eventually can get an Intel Mac, I'll also use MatLab (our department > > has a license). > > ... > > I plan eventually to learn C/C++ coding with XCode (free) > > OCaml really sits between Maple and C++, being almost as high-level and > expressive as Maple/Matlab whilst simultaneously being almost as fast as > C++. OCaml also has the advantage of being free.
This is certainly an advantage for someone who has to decide between free (OCaml) or pay (Maple) to work with symbolic mathematics.
I should point out, as I write solution keys to homework and exam assignments using a symbolic math interface, being diligent to the call that whatever coding I write does not hide the methodology needed to solve the problem is important. Given that some of my students always complain that Maple is an "esoteric computer language", I would be hard pressed to move to OCaml as a substitute, as it is a step toward a lower level.
That said, I can see that OCaml is well suited to projects where learning the language goes hand-in-hand with the requirement to complete the programming task effectively.
> Over the past four years, OCaml has completely superceded C++ for me.
My eventual interest in C/C++ is to compose external routines to Igor Pro. Unfortunately, OCaml provides no benefit to this.
> >> Also, is there anything resembling the CLR for OSX? > > > > Don't know. What the heck is "the CLR"? > > The Common Language Runtime that underpins .NET. It provides a single > intermediate representation for a variety of front-end languages, so C# and > Visual BASIC can share the same native-code compiler, garbage collector and > libraries. > > I started using Windows recently and .NET is the future under Windows. I > believe Cocoa is the equivalent of Windows Forms. As I understand it, using > Cocoa from other languages is much harder. > > So, what languages and tools would you use to write a GUI application for > OSX?
Hmmm. Don't know, as I do not intend ever to go this direction. If I did though, I think a search for "GUI coding applications MacOS X" and equivalents might be a start.
