Another thing to look out for - any time someone uses @@ in OCaml, that's a sign that they really would have preferred the paren style calling concrete syntax. It achieves the same precedence.
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is `@@` like `(<|)` and `($)` in Elm/Haskell respectively?
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I think so.
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Pretty convinced that `(<|)`, `(|>)`, `(<<)`, `(>>)` is the way to go for application and composition operators now, thanks to F# and Elm. Makes things a ton clearer for folks than `@@` and `(.)`/`($)`, which provide no directional hint to people.
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I do agree, in an OCaml/ML style syntax. For Reason v3, <| is no longer needed I think. |> is still useful.
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That kind of hints at an assymmetry in the design though? Would have been interesting to see if histories diverged if `(<|)` was available, or if the more readable reverse composition operator, `(|>)`, was preferred over `(@@)`.
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Either way, it's nowhere nears as familiar as x(y, z). Many developers even have a visceral reaction to snake_case not being camelCase. Imagine how much more adverse the response would be to an ML syntax full of <| |>. I just make the observations here.
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Hey, just want to say, sorry for my strong comments, they were a little heated in hindsight, and it was kind of a silly of me. Thanks for all the work you are doing, you're doing a great job for all of us, and it's important to make tricky choices along the way!
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We're all working hard and experimenting. I'm still not sold on the approach, but I know you mean well, and it's impossible to make everyone happy, especially when it comes to something quite subjective like syntax.
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These Reason guys are doing an awesome job and I'm grateful that they're working on it. Sometimes a simple solution is hiding in plain sight: as far as lowering the barrier-to-entry for JSers, why not simply write all of the tutorial/introductory examples in uncurried style?
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I did like Dan Grossman's approach to his Programming Languages course, where he starts off with tuples in arguments with pattern matching, calling them 'parameter lists', then drops them in the second week, which is a cool reveal.