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ReasonML Quick Start Guide
ReasonML Quick Start Guide

ReasonML Quick Start Guide: Build fast and type-safe React applications that leverage the JavaScript and OCaml ecosystems

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Profile Icon Rafatpanah Profile Icon Joseph D'mello
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Paperback Feb 2019 180 pages 1st Edition
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€13.98 €19.99
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Rafatpanah Profile Icon Joseph D'mello
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€18.99 per month
Paperback Feb 2019 180 pages 1st Edition
eBook
€13.98 €19.99
Paperback
€24.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
€13.98 €19.99
Paperback
€24.99
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Renews at €18.99p/m

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ReasonML Quick Start Guide

Setting Up a Development Environment

In addition to being a new syntax for OCaml, Reason is a toolchain that makes it easy to get started. In this chapter, we'll do the following:

  • Learn about the Reason toolchain
  • Configure our editor
  • Use bsb to start a pure Reason project
  • Learn about bsconfig.json
  • Write an example pure Reason application that manipulates the DOM
  • Use bsb to start a ReasonReact project
  • Get comfortable using webpack within a Reason project

To follow along, clone this book's GitHub repository and start from this chapter's directory. You're also welcome to start from a blank project:

git clone https://github.com/PacktPublishing/ReasonML-Quick-Start-Guide.git
cd ReasonML-Quick-Start-Guide
cd Chapter02/pure-reason-start
npm install

This chapter is meant to get you comfortable with the Reason toolchain. We'll have separate development environments...

The Reason toolchain

At the time of writing, the Reason toolchain is essentially BuckleScript—Reason's partner project—and the familiar JavaScript toolchain, namely npm and webpack (or another JavaScript module bundler).

There's no longer a need for babel, since BuckleScript compiles to the ES5 version of JavaScript. The compiled output can be configured to use either the CommonJS, AMD, or ES module formats. Reason's powerful static-type system replaces the need for Flow and ESlint. Additionally, Reason's editor plugins all come with refmt, which is essentially prettier for Reason.

Installing BuckleScript

BuckleScript is a compiler that takes the OCaml AST and emits clean, readable, and performant...

Setting up a pure Reason project

The bsb binary includes a project generator. We'll use it to create a pure Reason project using the basic-reason theme. Run bsb -themes to see all available project templates:

Available themes: 
basic
basic-reason
generator
minimal
node
react
react-lite
tea

Since BuckleScript works with both OCaml and Reason, some themes are only for OCaml projects. That being said, feel free to mix OCaml's .ml files with Reason's .re files within any BuckleScript project.

In this chapter, we'll focus on using the basic-reason and react templates. If you're curious, the react-lite theme is like the react one, except webpack is replaced with a simpler, faster, and more reliable module bundler that is intended only for development purposes.

Let's first create a pure Reason project:

bsb -init my-first-app -theme basic-reason
cd my-first-app

When...

Setting up a ReasonReact project

To create a new ReasonReact project, run the following command:

bsb -init my-reason-react-app -theme react
cd my-reason-react-app

After opening our text editor, we see that a couple of things have changed. The package.json file lists the relevant React and webpack dependencies. Let's install them:

npm install

We also have the following webpack-related npm scripts:

"webpack": "webpack -w",
"webpack:production": "NODE_ENV=production webpack"

In bsconfig.json, we have a new field that turns on JSX for ReasonReact:

"reason": {
"react-jsx": 2
},

We have a simple webpack.config.js file:

const path = require("path");
const outputDir = path.join(__dirname, "build/");

const isProd = process.env.NODE_ENV === "production";

module.exports = {
entry: "./src/Index...

Summary

In this chapter, we saw just how easy it is to get started with Reason. In Chapter 3, Creating ReasonReact Components, we'll start to build a ReasonReact application that we'll use throughout this book. This application will help to provide context as we learn more about Reason semantics, BuckleScript interoperability, and ReasonReact specifics.

Don't worry if you don't yet understand everything within these generated projects. By the end of Chapter 3, Creating ReasonReact Components, you'll be a lot more comfortable. However, if you have questions along the way, please don't hesitate to reach out on Reason's Discord channel for real-time assistance: https://discord.gg/reasonml.

I hope you'll find the Reason community as welcoming and helpful as I have.

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Key benefits

  • Hands on learning by building a real world app shell that includes client-side routing and more.
  • Understand Reason’s ecosystem including BuckleScript and various npm workflows.
  • Learn how Reason differs from TypeScript and Flow, and how to use it to make refactoring less stressful.

Description

ReasonML, also known as Reason, is a new syntax and toolchain for OCaml that was created by Facebook and is meant to be approachable for web developers. Although OCaml has several resources, most of them are from the perspective of systems development. This book, alternatively, explores Reason from the perspective of web development. You'll learn how to use Reason to build safer, simpler React applications and why you would want to do so. Reason supports immutability by default, which works quite well in the context of React. In learning Reason, you will also learn about its ecosystem – BuckleScript, JavaScript interoperability, and various npm workflows. We learn by building a real-world app shell, including a client-side router with page transitions, that we can customize for any Reason project. You'll learn how to leverage OCaml's excellent type system to enforce guarantees about business logic, as well as preventing runtime type errors.You'll also see how the type system can help offload concerns that we once had to keep in our heads. We'll explore using CSS-in-Reason, how to use external JSON in Reason, and how to unit-test critical business logic. By the end of the book, you'll understand why Reason is exploding in popularity and will have a solid foundation on which to continue your journey with Reason.

Who is this book for?

The target audience of this book is web developers who are somewhat familiar with ReactJS and who want to learn why ReasonML is the future of ReactJS.

What you will learn

  • Learn why Reason is exploding in popularity and why it s the future of React
  • Become familiar with Reason s syntax and semantics
  • Learn about Reason s ecosystem: BuckleScript and JavaScript interoperability
  • Learn how to build React applications with Reason
  • Learn how to use Reason s type system as a tool to provide amazing guarantees
  • Gain a solid foundation on which to continue your journey

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Feb 28, 2019
Length: 180 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789340785
Languages :
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Product Details

Publication date : Feb 28, 2019
Length: 180 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789340785
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Introduction to ReasonML Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Setting Up a Development Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating ReasonReact Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
BuckleScript, Belt, and Interoperability Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Effective ML Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
CSS-in-JS (in Reason) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
JSON in Reason Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Unit Testing in Reason Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
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