# What is an example of a good, modern OCaml codebase that I can learn from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Learning\ **Created:** [February 3, 2022, 12:45am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268 "2022-02-03T00:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mimoo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/mimoo/32/2900_2.png) [@mimoo](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/mimoo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 12:45am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/1 "2022-02-03T00:45:03Z")
Question is in the title šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Chet\_Murthy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/chet_murthy/32/1501_2.png) [@Chet\_Murthy](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/Chet_Murthy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 1:17am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/2 "2022-02-03T01:17:18Z")
I would nominate any project by @dbuenzli : he knows how to write the code, also how to write the documentation. Concretely, maybe cmdliner might be nice to look at. Or fmt. ---
**Author:** ![yawaramin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/yawaramin/32/3384_2.png) [@yawaramin](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/yawaramin)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 2:21am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/3 "2022-02-03T02:21:37Z")
Also asked in [https://www.reddit.com/r/ocaml/comments/sj4htc/what\_is\_an\_example\_of\_a\_good\_modern\_ocaml/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ocaml/comments/sj4htc/what_is_an_example_of_a_good_modern_ocaml/) ---
**Author:** ![Chet\_Murthy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/chet_murthy/32/1501_2.png) [@Chet\_Murthy](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/Chet_Murthy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 7:27am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/4 "2022-02-03T07:27:18Z")
The ā€œfixā€ project by Francois Poittier, is also a good choice. I have been hacking on that for the last week, and itā€™s lovely code. Also powerful ideas and theory there, but really, that isnā€™t a prerequisite for your question, Iā€™d think. Iā€™s well-written and easy-to-modify: Iā€™m using to hack/hack/hack on Camlp5ā€™s parser-generator, and itā€™s _great_ fun. And for those who donā€™t know about the Brzozowski derivative, I highly recommend having a look. [http://gallium.inria.fr/blog/fixin-your-automata/](http://gallium.inria.fr/blog/fixin-your-automata/) > **[POTTIER Francois / fix](https://gitlab.inria.fr/fpottier/fix/)** > > An OCaml library that provides facilities for memoization and fixed points. ---
**Author:** ![mro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/mro/32/2496_2.png) [@mro](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/mro)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 7:56am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/5 "2022-02-03T07:56:12Z")
I understand good, but whatā€™s the difference between modern and not? ---
**Author:** ![dbuenzli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/dbuenzli/32/18_2.png) [@dbuenzli](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/dbuenzli)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 10:21am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/6 "2022-02-03T10:21:10Z")
> [@Chet\_Murthy](#): > > I would nominate any project by @dbuenzli Thanks for the embarassing praise, but I wouldnā€™t recommend _any_. Some of the stuff has been written ages ago when the language, the stdlib and the @dbuenzli were quite different. If you want to follow this advice tend to favour more recent projects (look at the `CHANGES.md` for the first date of release). Also this is mostly libraries so it may not be that interesting to look at (there is however this CRUD [webapp](https://github.com/dbuenzli/hyperbib), but saying Iā€™m happy with the code would be quite a stretch, thereā€™s tons of things to iron out but at some point you have to deliverā€¦). ---
**Author:** ![dbuenzli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/dbuenzli/32/18_2.png) [@dbuenzli](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/dbuenzli)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 11:10am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/7 "2022-02-03T11:10:55Z")
> [@mro](#): > > I understand good, but whatā€™s the difference between modern and not? Modern is a ragbag but if you take it to mean matches the current language capabilities it makes sense. For example 18 years ago, encoding and using existential types was [quite involved](https://alan.petitepomme.net/cwn/2004.01.13.html#1), but if you needed them that was ā€œgoodā€ and ā€œmodernā€ šŸ˜‚. Nowadays, in ā€œmodernā€ code, this is just a [GADT existential](https://ocaml.org/manual/gadts-tutorial.html) away. ---
**Author:** ![mro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/mro/32/2496_2.png) [@mro](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/mro)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 12:13pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/8 "2022-02-03T12:13:02Z")
I wonder nobody mentioned @antron and lambdasoup or dream so far. The new website works that way: [https://github.com/ocaml/v3.ocaml.org-server](https://github.com/ocaml/v3.ocaml.org-server). Or tyre by @drup. Or stuff by @hannes & friends in the mirage ecosystem. ---
**Author:** ![mro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/mro/32/2496_2.png) [@mro](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/mro)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/9 "2022-02-03T16:00:17Z")
oh ā€“ and definitively donā€™t miss [Share your crazy OCaml code snippet!](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/share-your-crazy-ocaml-code-snippet/8116) ---
**Author:** ![didier-wenzek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@didier-wenzek](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/didier-wenzek)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/what-is-an-example-of-a-good-modern-ocaml-codebase-that-i-can-learn-from/9268/10 "2022-02-03T21:45:23Z")
+1 for [dream](https://aantron.github.io/dream/) by @antron. Itā€™s a real pleasure to read and to see the power of just a bunch of types that are glorified functions.