[jond3k]

I think the point is that there's something intrinsically verifiable about a mathematical model since you're dealing with quantifiable output.

Other cases I can think of are systems where high-throughput or low latency are major requirements but there aren't many of those. Most of what we do is about getting more users or making more profit - good engineering performance and decisions are not directly related to these.

[buff-a]

Video games are all about high-throughput and low latency. Nobody writing commercial games in functional languages that I'm aware of.

[bartonfink]

I believe the Jak and Dexter games were written in a Lisp dialect, although I'm not sure of the success.

[buff-a]

Naughty Dog created their own version of lisp called GOAL to control game objects. Scripting languages are common in games, but the "heavy lifting" is done in C/C++, as is the case in Jak and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot. Naughty Dog don't use GOAL any more. Have their games gotten worse?

Also note that the effect on performance and throughput are cited as downsides of using GOAL.[1][2]

I met the Naughty Dog team back then and Crash was an awesome game. Their use of a custom scripting language for so much of a real-time game (as opposed to an RPG) was pioneering. They did other innovative things, like baking in radiance transfer to their models to get the lush levels in the game. But at the end of the day, when the Lisp evangelists left Naughty Dog, they stopped using it almost immediately. Apparently, despite using Lisp, and learning from "one of the best lisp programmers in the world", none of that rubbed off on what appears to be an excellent programming team.

The only explanations are:

a) In 7+ years of working with a foremost Lisp programmer, that knowledge did not transfer, or

b) It did transfer, and the other programmers did not see a net advantage.

The OP would like us to believe that the answer is (a). Subsequent games from Naughty Dog would suggest that it is (b).

[1] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LispInJakAndDaxter

[2] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2985/postmortem_naught...

[dextorious]

"""Other cases I can think of are systems where high-throughput or low latency are major requirements but there aren't many of those."""

Actually, I haven't met many cases of systems were high-throughput or low latency are NOT major requirements.

Sure, you can wait for your admin script to do something for half an hour, if it means you get to write it in, say, Python, over some faster language. But you don't want to wait for most things, including most end user software. Here's a list people complain all the time about the slowness of:

1) text editors, programmer editors etc. 2) spreadsheets 3) media players 4) compile times 5) image editing programs 6) web pages/apps 7) mobile apps 8) games 9) file managers 10) IDEs 11) video/multimedia editing 12) sound editing 13) word processors 14) window management 15) databases 16) ftp 17) file management 18) asset management 19) browsers

If there's a program for something, there are people complaining it's slow/bloated.

[jond3k]

Well observed, but I think we need to tell apart cases where performance is mandatory and where it is optional. People wouldn't just complain if it was mandatory, it simply wouldn't be a viable product.