Mainstream developers often make such a mistake as they chase fads: just don't worry about them. Your focus is a niche with less press anyway. My specialty high assurance systems & security. I like your language because it's safe like ML, extends that to Web stuff, doesn't treat DB's like an afterthought, and integrates whole stack without the mess of mainstream stuff. I'd expect Opa apps to be more robust than average web app. The only thing I didn't like is you porting the backend to Javascript, a step backward in assurance. Hard enough to do an EAL7, JavaCard VM or non-optimizing C compiler. A Javascript implementation might be a PhD's worth of work. Yet, I understand why you did it and it made some sense for your market. I'm sure people wanting more assurance could always modify the backend to target something simpler, right?
Your main competition, that I see, are Ur/Web and the Ocaml/Haskell frameworks. I recommend that you continue doing what you're doing while copying any great things you see in those communities along the way. Especially ways to leverage type system to prevent problems. I think just good marketing, library support, fixing some of what people are griping about, and some major success stories in the media is all you need. Best wishes on your work as it's one of rare few that leans toward a Correct-by-Construction approach to web applications. Need more of those.
I couldn't agree more! Although biased, I think that Opa is the easier of those technologies to learn and master for developers. And we also have more flexibility due to our compiler (vs frameworks). We have been rightfully compared to Ur/Web since the beginning. Adam Chlipala is an outstanding scientist and his work is definitely of high quality, maybe more academic.
Note that we have other experimental backends available, although not in the open source release (yet). I am also interested in compiling to MirageOS -- we have all the mechanisms in place in Opa to do that easily, namely one called the "Bypass Standard Library" (BSL). I just uploaded one draft paper written at MLstate about the BSL: https://www.scribd.com/doc/271277920/Opa-BSL-Bypass-Standard...
Your main competition, that I see, are Ur/Web and the Ocaml/Haskell frameworks. I recommend that you continue doing what you're doing while copying any great things you see in those communities along the way. Especially ways to leverage type system to prevent problems. I think just good marketing, library support, fixing some of what people are griping about, and some major success stories in the media is all you need. Best wishes on your work as it's one of rare few that leans toward a Correct-by-Construction approach to web applications. Need more of those.