Practical OCaml

Objective Caml (OCaml) is an open sourced programming language that allows a programmer to utilize both functional and object oriented programming. A very fast and efficient language, oCaml's speed is on par with the likes of C/C++. The compiler is available for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Unix, Linux, and Apple. OCaml can be found in a variety of scientific applications and well as a teaching language in universities.Practical OCaml teaches Objective Caml in a straightforward and practical manner. All the features of this functional programming language are taught by example. You will learn how to utilize the OCaml language to create a simple database, do reporting, and create a spam filter. You will also learn how to do complex log file scanning, create your own network servers by creating a shoutcast server, and create a web crawler. By this book's conclusion, you will be well on your way to creating your own applications with OCaml, as well as knowing when and why OCaml should be used. TOC:Introduction: Why Ocaml.- Interacting with Ocaml: the toplevel.- Syntax and Semantics.- Functions: with or without Curry.- Practical: A Simple Database.- Primitive and Composite types.- Practical: Simple Database Reports and imports.- Collections.- Files and File I/O.- Exception Handling.- Practical: a URI parsing library.- Ocamldoc.- Modules and Functors.- Practical: A Spam Filter.- Practical: A Network Aware Scoring Function.- Ocamllex and Ocamlyacc.- Practical: Log file scanner using Ocamllex and Ocamlyacc.- Generic Functions.- The Objective part of Ocaml.- Digression: How Ocaml is impure.- Digression: Functional Programming as a lifestyle choice.- Practical: Web programming with mod_caml.- Practical: A Shoutcast Server.- Threading and Concurrency.- Practical: A Concurrent Web Crawler.- FFI: Camlidl and interfacing with C.- Practical: strftime and difftime.- Practical: Parsing Binary Files.- Makefiles, findlib, and Ocaml Development.- Camlp4.- Conclusion.