Re: F# fsharp

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 4:11 PM, Jon Watte <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sorry, I was confusing Haskell with OCaml. Which still isn't *widely* used
> in the financial industry, like Java, say, but at least is used in anger in
> some places :-)

Ok, that pings my sanity check meter a little more.  Admittedly it's
been awhile since I've been actively involved in the Seattle
Functional Programmers http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SeaFunc/ but
my memory of financial co's. was more about OCaml than Haskell.  For
instance, Jane St. Capital as of a few years ago, don't know what
they're doing now.  OCaml always had a performance edge over Haskell
as it was based on more serious compiler technology.  Also OCaml is
not a "pure" FP language, side effects are allowed.  Haskell is "pure"
and that means you're forced to wrap your head around pure FP
programming paradigms, such as monads.  OCaml integrates the OO
schtick into FP.  It is a multi-paradigm language, and I think it's
pretty clear to see why Microsoft chose OCaml as the point of
departure for its own language product, not Haskell.

As for that "Haskell is useless in industry" blog, well, historically
John Harrop was an OCaml guy.  I've crossed swords with him before,
about who knows what.  Left a bad taste in my mouth.  Nobody here
would be surprised that I crossed swords with somebody.  It's worth
noting, however, that there are other guys out there like myself with
strong opinions that get people all riled up, it's not my unique
product.  ;-)  That whole Haskell discussion strikes me as a tempest
in a teapot, and is part of what I dislike about FP academia, and to
some extent open source in general.  Too small a number of people
fighting over intellectual and financial scraps.  You can't really
talk to these people seriously about money, productization, or
usability, as they're simply not motivated that way.  Personally I
think the commercial merit of F# is bloody obvious compared to any of
the other FP competitors.  The only thing actually worth discussing
IMO is whether F# can replace Lua, Python, Ruby, C#, etc.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every
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