Re: Receptive Tool Vendors (was: Re: [Caml-list] Jihad)

[Brian Rogoff <bpr@bpr.best.vwh.net>]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2001, Krishnaswami, Neel wrote:
> David Fox [mailto:dsfox@cogsci.ucsd.edu] wrote:
> > "Eric Newhuis" <enew@bigfoot.com> writes:
> > > 
> > > Am I wrong?  What is the current state of functional 
> > > programming language acceptance?
> > 
> > I would say it is low world wide.  As a matter of fact, many of the
> > engineers in the U.S. who are unaware of functional programming are
> > foreigners!  I'm being facetious, but I think that injecting
> > nationality into this discussion is unhelpful and annoying.
> 
> Locale matters somewhat, I'd think. I say this because I live in
> Boston, and the MIT/Lisp connection is somewhat felt even now. 

It's good that some things don't change much.

> Mostly, in the sense that startups are able to get ahold of Lisp
> hackers who gripe about how defective Java is. :/ Presumably the 
> same is true in and around Stanford. 

Nope. When I left Snodfart a few classes were going from C++ to Java
but there were also transitions to C++. Realize that many (most?) hackers
don't come from CS departments but from engineering departments. Most 
programmers I meet have never heard of OCaml before, though almost all of
them have heard about it after :-).

> I guess the Lelisp effort  morphed into Caml, 

I think there's overlap, but I think this description is inaccurate. Try
this 

http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~cousinea/Caml/caml_history.html 

> so perhaps the situation is better in France?

No doubt there are more people exposed to Caml there. 

-- Brian
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