[HN Gopher] WebML: A Standard ML Compiler for the Web
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       WebML: A Standard ML Compiler for the Web
        
       Author : lelf
       Score  : 74 points
       Date   : 2020-03-08 15:58 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | melling wrote:
       | There's also a well supported ML for the web from Facebook:
       | 
       | https://reasonml.github.io/
       | 
       | With React:
       | 
       | https://reasonml.github.io/reason-react/
        
         | elcapitan wrote:
         | Facebook's part is actually just the syntax of ReasonML, the
         | actual ML-Javascript-compiler is Bucklescript from Bloomberg.
        
           | chenglou wrote:
           | BuckleScript's author works for Facebook for years now.
        
         | Athas wrote:
         | None of these are Standard ML! There are people who prefer SML
         | for various reasons.
         | 
         | Somewhat unexpectedly, there is in fact already a very good
         | SML-to-browser solution, namely the unfortunately named
         | SMLtoJs:
         | https://github.com/melsman/mlkit/blob/master/README_SMLTOJS....
         | 
         | It's from 2011 and so predates most other Javascript-targeting
         | languages. It's unfortunate it never got any traction.
        
           | eatonphil wrote:
           | SOSML [0] came out recently, written in TypeScript and
           | sporting an online interpreter. Then there's this prominent
           | SML-er's JavaScript backend for Moscow ML [1]. And Andreas
           | Rossberg's HaMLet [2] also has a JavaScript backend.
           | 
           | [0] https://github.com/SOSML/SOSML
           | 
           | [1] https://github.com/kfl/mosml-js
           | 
           | [2] https://people.mpi-sws.org/~rossberg/hamlet/
        
         | kccqzy wrote:
         | Reason is just a syntax frontend. You should be linking to
         | BuckleScript instead.
        
         | lymitshn wrote:
         | There is also F# Fable[0] compiler that compiles F# to JS. I
         | would say its more ML like, syntax wise (excluding bucklescript
         | ofc).
         | 
         | [0] https://fable.io/
        
           | kqr wrote:
           | I was going to point out the same; if you can get your ML fix
           | from F#, definitely look Fable up -- it's nothing but
           | surprised me with how well polished it is.
        
       | adultSwim wrote:
       | Curious if they will be using Javascript garbage collection or
       | rolling their own
        
       | mhd wrote:
       | Interesting, the second new ML compiler to arrive on the scene,
       | after Morel[1].
       | 
       | [1]: https://github.com/julianhyde/morel
        
         | eatonphil wrote:
         | Cool! I hadn't heard of this. SOSML [0] is the other most
         | recent one I'm aware of.
         | 
         | [0] https://github.com/SOSML/SOSML
        
       | darksaints wrote:
       | I don't really follow web development much...what is the status
       | of DOM APIs in WebAssembly? Is it now possible to use a
       | WebAssembly-compiled language end to end, without any javascript
       | acting as an intermediary?
        
         | enos_feedler wrote:
         | I've been wondering the same, but also trying to understand the
         | impact of DOM access in WebAssembly. This might create a
         | massive fragmentation problem for web platform code and I am
         | not sure the benefit. ObjC -> Swift worked. Java -> Kotlin
         | might work for Android, though still somewhat annoying.
         | 
         | I don't know what the future of communicating web code with
         | snippets would be like if everyone chose their own language. I
         | am not a web developer, but is this happening with TypeScript
         | now? Is it a problem?
         | 
         | EDIT: I am pro-WebAssembly, but I am starting to think the
         | benefits are actually about taking the philosophy of the web
         | outside the browser and leave DOM-based pages to html/css/js
        
       | eatonphil wrote:
       | The usual pitch: if you're interested in seeing more Standard ML
       | news, check out /r/sml on Reddit. There's relatively good
       | discussion and postings for a small subreddit.
        
       | protomyth wrote:
       | Is there a license? I looked at the source for a few files and
       | found none.
        
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       (page generated 2020-03-08 23:00 UTC)