[nv-vn]

I think MLs are kind of in limbo in regards to functional vs. imperative and OO vs. procedural programming. While they offer good OO, it's utilized very little. The functional features are used a ton, but don't dare approach the complexity of Scala, Haskell, etc., which is disappointing to a lot of more advanced functional programmers. They have reasonably good facilities for imperative programming, but these are mostly frowned upon. The whole language is, to an extent, a compromise over various paradigms that are very nearly mutually exclusive outside of ML.

[Drup]

I would actually argue the opposite: ML languages propose the sweet spot of having functional features but still being flexible.

Mutability, OO and various other feature are all there just when you need them. You don't need, like in Haskell, to do incredible contortions to be able to express things naturally.

Regardless which algorithm and API you want, there is a pretty good chance you can express it in OCaml naturally, and it'll almost always be reasonably efficient by default.

Also, everyone underestimate modules a lot. They're the best software development tool in any language by a long shot.

[hyperpallium]

So, what's your answer to the question being asked, "why ML/OCaml aren't more popular" ?

Sounds like you're in the same boat as the asker.

[59nadir]

In practice languages don't need to be popular for you to use them. They might be hard sells to bosses and the like, but there is room for impopular technology in the market as well. All you need is a main advocate with enough sway with bosses and the like.

There are positions at companies using niche languages. Even though most companies prefer not to make broad technical decisions (even though they have CTOs, etc.), plenty of them do and so you're not going to find them making massively concurrent backends in Java.

Even in the situation where there are no jobs for a language, why would you really not use it if it's the best tool you have? The onus is not on the language/technology to make people realize it's great. The reverse is true too: It's not Java's, JavaScript's, C++, Ruby's or any other language's fault that people are stupid enough to make backends in them. Even if the majority of those languages/platforms were good it'd be stupid to use them for things they're designed not to do.

[Drup]

I simply made my peace with the fact that popularity has little to do with merit. :)

[cies]

> The whole language is, to an extent, a compromise over various paradigms that are very nearly mutually exclusive outside of ML.

I'd say the MLs are functional-first (with imperative/OO on top). Like Ruby OO-first (with some functional on top).

For me this type of multi-paradigm is ok. It starts to hurt when all the paradigms are "first", which I see in Scala.