Frameworks: No, Libraries: Yes. Developing a product in OCaml from Scratch
summary
Terrateam builds an OCaml product by owning core control flow libraries rather than adopting external frameworks, shipping a custom ABB concurrency with cancellation plus HTTP and Postgres libraries that interoperate by design. Codebase totals 106k LOC across 1,500 files and 192 packages, evolved since 2013. A two‑person company (≈$500k funding) routinely ships features in days (one partner feature in a week), fixes bugs in 1–2 days with <10 LOC, and migrates to OCaml 5 for domains.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 4:20Why no external frameworks
- 12:30Libraries vs frameworks
- 17:50Building async building blocks
- 24:18Trade-offs and company goals
- 26:26Q&A session
related talks
40mRetrofitting Concurrency – Lessons from the Engine Room
15mA Long Trip in Open Source Development
01h 02mFishbowl @ Functional Conf
13mTo Framework or Not to Framework? That is the Question
45mKeynote: One Monolith, Many Teams: Growing an Org...
14mThe state of Morello software and projects
30mProduction › Prototype: How a Small Team Replaced a Core Platform in 90 Days
52mChaos Development: Removing software as the inhibitor of Agile