Native Reason Basics

Relation to OCaml

The ReasonML What and Why page provides a good description for what ReasonML is:

Reason is not a new language; it's a new syntax and toolchain powered by the battle-tested language, OCaml. Reason gives OCaml a familiar syntax geared toward JavaScript programmers, and caters to the existing NPM/Yarn workflow folks already know.

What this effectively means is that

  • Reason projects are OCaml projects
  • Reason code is OCaml code
  • Projects are free to harness the power of the OCaml ecosystem.

The hello-reason starter described in Getting Started is based off of Dune, an OCaml/Reason build system used by ~40% of the OCaml community.

Native Reason vs Reason Native

Reason Native is a set of packages designed to assist development of native Reason projects.

Native Reason projects are Reason projects that target native system binaries. We say native Reason projects because Reason can also be compiled to JavaScript through BuckleScript.

If you are new to Reason and would like to learn more about the language, please visit the ReasonML Docs.

Dune

Dune is the primary build system used by native Reason projects, and is system of choice used throughout this documentation website. If you are unfamiliar with dune, we highly recommend reading the Dune Overview.

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