[erlang-questions] The Beauty of Erlang Syntax

[Michael T. Richter]

On Wed, 2009-02-25 at 09:17 +0000, Ulf Wiger wrote:

> >Why do you think people stay away from functional programming
> > languages in droves?
> 
> In my experience, succeeding in commercial software development is
> usually more about understanding your limits and capacity, more than 
> using the sharpest possible tool (better the devil you know...)



> From that perspective, it's not so much a matter of 'staying away in 
> droves' as sticking with what you know.



> This is especially true in large companies, where multiplying a 
> technical cost assessment with a "project factor" of 5-10 seems like 
> a perfectly sensible thing to do*. Here, 'predictable' beats 
> 'brilliant' (almost) every time.



> * Indeed, as long as same company makes a healthy profit, who's to say 
> that it /isn't/ sensible?


As usual, Ulf gives an answer that gives me some hope.  This is the kind
of thinking I like to see instead of the far more common "they just
don't get it" or the far more obnoxious version of the same thinking
"they're just too stupid to understand it".  Even the various "Sun and
Microsoft marketing killed the language landscape" answers beg the
question because even if it were true, why did Sun and Microsoft use C
and C++ and later "improve" upon these with Java and C# respectively?

-- 
Michael T. Richter <ttmrichter@REDACTED> (GoogleTalk:
ttmrichter@REDACTED)
A well-designed and humane interface does not need to be split into
beginner and expert subsystems. (Jef Raskin)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/attachments/20090225/439fb187/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/attachments/20090225/439fb187/attachment.bin>