Hello Johan,
Perhaps as you I am not a "professional programmer"
because I am an electric engineer and a self made
programmer by need, a long 30 years story (Hw & SW
develpment). I had similar troubles when I've started
to lear OCaml. My personal experience steps summary:

1) Take a while with John Harrison course to LEARN the
basic idea of types and functions. (suggested by Frank
Atannasow).

2) Play with OCaml top wich is very handy to undestand
type equations. (wich is a basic prerequisite).

3) Forget C/C++ or any procedural mental scheme or don't infere nothing aside the language).

4) Rely on type inference and check the type solution
the top evaluator resolves for you to make sence.

5) At the beginning do simple exercices with native
types avoiding type annotations (or don't figth
against the type checker, you'll always lose).

6) Stay with the core language until you feel comfort
don't try Modules OO or labels.

7) Finally learn and exercise all the elegant beauty
stuffs the language provide to become an addicted!

Hope this would help OCaml other beginners.

Best regards,
Arturo


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