I chose OCaml as my primary language

Summary

In this opinion piece, I will try to briefly share my encounter with the language and list its advantages — organized into several sections covering the language itself, its ecosystem, and its community. I will also attempt to debunk some popular myths (or misconceptions) found on the Internet. For the sake of transparency, it is important to note that, at the time of writing, my professional work involves working for and on the OCaml ecosystem. However, readers who have followed me for several years can attest that I was promoting the language long before I was paid to work on the OCaml ecosystem, sometimes rather immoderately. Foreword First, this article will explain why I personally believe that OCaml is a relevant choice in many contexts. My goal is not specifically to convince you—although that would be a very welcome side effect — and it’s quite likely that many of the arguments I present will also apply to other languages! Also, very often, when I suggest OCaml to people who want to explore new languages or try out solutions written in OCaml, I’m kindly told that I’m always promoting OCaml. It’s amusing to notice that when the suggestions involve languages adopted by default, like JavaScript, or more recent ones like Rust or Go, they tend to trigger fewer reactions. This is probably because people implicitly assume that proposing a lesser-known language leans toward irrationality and personal preference. From my point of view, suggesting OCaml is, in many cases where fine-grained memory control is not needed, just as relevant as suggesting Rust (and probably more so). To wrap up this preface, many people first encountered OCaml (or Caml Light) during their undergraduate studies or in preparatory classes, often using it in contexts far removed from industry. As for me, I started getting interested in OCaml much earlier, thanks to the Site du Zéro, where a small community of functional programming enthusiasts promoted less mainstream languages like OCaml, Erla...