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by twblalock 3423 days ago
> I know a lot of people don't want to hear this but these types of languages, functional first, are the future of our industry.

Mainstream languages will incorporate functional features and remain popular, and they will not be superseded by pure functional languages. Java and C# are already doing this.
2 comments
smoothdeveloper 3423 days ago
They will still remain generally more painful and more exposed to their issues and choices:

* mutable by default

* OO by default

* null by default

* structural equality a pain to implement

* immutable types a pain to implement

* verbose syntax / failing at the DRY principle

* statement based rather than expression based

* large codebase following those idioms

I don't think they'll not remain popular, but I think a more important share of people will eventually "get it" that there are alternative approaches which are sound, same or greater potential to achieve and thriving eco-system.

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pjmlp 3423 days ago
Managers don't care about those bullet points.

If you want to sell a language to the upper layers, you need a list of business reasons, not language features.

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smoothdeveloper 3423 days ago
See if testimonials help: http://fsharp.org/testimonials/

As for me, I also use the awareness of manager to the developer needs to be productive, give best ROI and would definitely use that to select a job.

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pjmlp 3423 days ago
I am aware of them, my comment was more a kind of heads up, because I have been in too many meetings about technology adoption, whose presenters though an endless list of features was the best approach.
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smoothdeveloper 3423 days ago
I see what you mean.

Really reduced codebase size and features like type provider which increase safety and saves from writing boiler plate code do save on the bottom line, especially in maintenance.

Also, if you are using vanilla C# for math computation, you can save CPU/energy by translating it to F#, it tends to run significantly faster, that also impacts the bottom line in some contexts.

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smoothdeveloper 3423 days ago
The other thing is footprint of codebase, despite almost 15 years of using C#, after only two years, I consistently write F# which is 1/3 of equivalent C# code, writing idiomatic code that any F# developers would grasp.

There are ways a C# aficionado would take to try to not be so verbose, but those solutions won't be considered idiomatic by 99% of C# developers.

At the end of the day, codebase size matters a lot.

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