Hannes Mehnert on MirageOS and OCaml: “Functional programming is about better code maintenance and program understanding”
Our backend engineer, Pavel Argentov, traveled to Marrakech, Morocco to attend the ninth MirageOS retreat, which was held from March 13-19, 2020. The goal of the event is to bring both experienced and brand new MirageOS users together to collaborate and sync various MirageOS subprojects, start new ones, and help each other fix bugs.
MirageOS is a library operating system that constructs unikernels for secure, high-performance network applications across a variety of cloud computing and mobile platforms. The code can be developed on Linux or Mac OS X and then compiled into a fully standalone, specialized unikernel that runs under a Xen or KVM hypervisor.
At the event, Pavel spoke with Hannes Mehnert, the co-author of MirageOS and host of the event, about his work with MirageOS and OCaml. He gave us some details about his contributions to MirageOS and why he joined the project. He also explained the benefits of functional programming and why he was initially drawn to it. In addition, he broke down the potential, and limitations, of MirageOS and OCaml and gave us some information on new developments and what’s to come. We’ve included the full transcript of the interview below, so you can get the latest info, straight from the best source.
