We’ve recently redesigned the OCaml Academic Users page and would love to get your feedback to ensure it’s as helpful as possible. You can view both versions here:
I find the “Top Universities Teach OCaml” mention and preference given to said “top universities” appalling. Using name dropping and argument from authority should be rejected, even more so when talking about institutions whose job is to perpetuate a scientific approach.
I tend to agree. It would be more egalitarian to use a single list of universities that teach OCaml. It’s not this website’s job to rank universities.
It’s also true that potential users of OCaml will likely be attracted by well-known universities appearing here. So it would be nice to make them easily discoverable within the flat list.
most “well-known universities” don’t teach OCaml (and possibly any functional language), it doesn’t make it a bad language nor does it make their choice of language a better or worse one.
the reasons for teaching this or that language are largely dependent on history (a few professors started teaching functional programming 40 years ago and the course has evolved but remained) and on exterior constraints (a curriculum depending on the respective influence of various subgroups of professors in a department, of other courses taught that need certain knowledge…)
the vast majority of OCaml users along the years has likely been students of not-“well-known” academic institutions (e.g. dozens of French universities or “grandes écoles”, and so-called “preparatory classes”), and this page does not acknowledge this in this presentation.
I think a language that has its roots in public long-term scientific research should not yield to the contemporary PR-based view of research and education.
Thanks for the redesign of the Academic User page.
I agree selecting “Top Universities” can be a bit biased (although I understand the marketing idea). I don’t know why Columbia, Princeton or UPMC are not Top Universities. I also think that when we are highlighting resources from specific universities perhaps we are implicitly recommending these resources over others. However, it is possible that universities that are not top universities also have good or better materials. I don’t know if the selection of 4-5 institutions can be random.
On the other hand, I really liked the page you get to after clicking on “See all institutions” where you can find resources of different types, I found it very useful.
A general point is that the Academic Users Page refers mostly/exclusively to the use of OCaml in the academic/teaching field of Computer Science. However in academic research, OCaml can be used for research in other contexts. An example could be the use of machine learning libraries in OCaml in different scientific projects, or libraries like Owl that are developed at the University, and can be used in numerical computation. I seem to remember that CERN has some tools programmed in OCaml. I don’t know if it is worth to mention those things as it depends on the focus or goals of the page.
As mentioned already, the “see all institutions” page is nice and a great source of information.
The “top 5” selection is a bit cringe, as university rankings are largely meaningless, both within a country (e.g. I’d put U Penn before UCSD) and especially between different countries.
Preparatory classes (CPGE, Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles) are not part of universities, but would deserve a mention: the MP2I/MPI curriculum where OCaml is taught is taken by 1000+ students each year, and comes with nice resources, such as this massive book: https://www.informatique-mpi.fr/ .
I’ve always been unclear as to the purpose of this page. Why would someone want to know which universities teach OCaml? And if they did, wouldn’t this info (along with the resources) be better provided via a “training/resources” page?
When I click on “academic users,” I want to know what type of academic research is being done on and with OCaml. So the papers and quotes from academics. And in particular, as a sociologist, I’d like to know if there are any others in the social sciences or humanities that are using OCaml as part of their research?
