Description
Book SynopsisThis fast-moving tutorial introduces you to OCaml, an industrial-strength programming language designed for expressiveness, safety, and speed. Through the book''s many examples, you''ll quickly learn how OCaml stands out as a tool for writing fast, succinct, and readable systems code using functional programming. Real World OCaml takes you through the concepts of the language at a brisk pace, and then helps you explore the tools and techniques that make OCaml an effective and practical tool. You''ll also delve deep into the details of the compiler toolchain and OCaml''s simple and efficient runtime system. This second edition brings the book up to date with almost a decade of improvements in the OCaml language and ecosystem, with new chapters covering testing, GADTs, and platform tooling. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core, thanks to the support of Tarides. Their generous contribution will bring more people to OCaml.
Trade Review'An invaluable guide to effective OCaml programming! With extended and updated coverage of key libraries and tools, it covers the language concepts and will teach you not only how to program in OCaml, but also how to develop efficient systems applications in this language.' Xavier Leroy, Collège de France and INRIA
'OCaml is widely known as an elegant language based on cutting-edge ideas. But this book focuses on use of OCaml as a powerful tool for the software industry. Using a series of hands-on examples, it shows the reader how to use advanced features from the OCaml ecosystem (types, modules, testing frameworks, libraries, package management, build tools, etc.) to solve practical problems. Real World OCaml is my go-to reference for learning how to develop real-world software systems in OCaml.' Nate Foster, Cornell University
Table of Contents1. Prologue; Part I. Language Concepts: 2. A guided tour; 3. Variables and functions; 4. Lists and patterns; 5. Files, modules, and programs; 6. Records; 7. Variants; 8. Error handling; 9. Imperative programming; 10. GADTs; 11. Functors; 12. First-class Modules; 13. Objects; 14. Classes; Part II. Tools and Techniques: 15. Maps and hash tables; 16. Command-line parsing; 17. Concurrent programming with Async; 18. Testing; 19. Handling JSON data; 20. Parsing with Ocamllex and Menhir; 21. Data serialization with S-expressions; 22. The OCaml platform; Part III. The Compiler and Runtime System: 23. Foreign function interface; 24. Memory representation of values; 25. Understanding the garbage collector; 26. The compiler frontend: parsing and type checking; 27. The compiler backend: bytecode and native code; References; Index.
