OCaml
A functional programming language with a strong static type system and a native-code compiler.
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1 more ways to get OCaml
Package managers
- Homebrew
brew install ocaml
About OCaml
OCaml is a general-purpose functional language focused on expressiveness and safety. Its type system catches many bugs at compile time, and garbage collection removes manual memory management, which makes large codebases easier to refactor.
The toolchain includes an interactive toplevel, a native compiler and editor integrations for VS Code, Vim and Emacs, and an online playground lets you try it without installing. The latest release is 5.5.1, with 4.14.4 as the long-term support release.
Strengths
- Strong type system that catches errors early
- Native compiler plus interactive toplevel
- Editor support for VS Code, Vim and Emacs
- Long-term support release line
Limitations
- Smaller library ecosystem than mainstream languages
- Functional style takes time to learn
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source.
- License
- LGPL-2.1
- Developer
- The OCaml contributors
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Developers building reliable software who want strong static typing
- Categories
- Developer tools
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to OCaml
Compare allSoftware that can replace OCaml for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Scala
A programming language that combines object-oriented and functional programming, targeting the JVM and web.
Scala combines functional and object-oriented programming on the JVM with access to Java libraries, and also targets the web through Scala.js.
Gleam
A type-safe functional programming language that runs on the Erlang VM and JavaScript runtimes.
Gleam is a younger type-safe functional language that runs on the Erlang VM and JavaScript, with compiler, build tool and package manager in one.
Rust
A compiled systems programming language with no garbage collector, installed through the rustup toolchain manager.
Rust is a compiled systems language with strong static types and compile-time memory safety, but its ownership model takes time to learn.
Elixir
A dynamic, functional programming language that runs on the Erlang VM for scalable, maintainable applications.
Elixir is a functional language on the Erlang VM with a gradual type system rather than OCaml's strict static typing, suited to concurrent back-end systems.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Erlang/OTP
The Erlang programming language and OTP runtime for building concurrent, fault-tolerant distributed systems.
Compiler Explorer
An interactive web tool that shows the assembly and intermediate output of compiled code.
Zig
A general-purpose systems programming language and toolchain that also works as a drop-in C/C++ compiler.
LLVM
A collection of modular compiler and toolchain technologies, including the Clang C and C++ compiler.
