It would be interesting to know why many of their projects are gradually transitioning to other languages. If someone paid me for programing in Haskell I would never voluntarily switch to something more boring.
I could think of two possibilities off the top of my head:
1. It’s easier to find developers who are skilled in the more popular languages.
2. Using a language is more than just its syntax and semantics; the ecosystem of tools and libraries for the language matters a lot, especially for commercial development. Interoperability between the language’s infrastructure and the desired platform the system needs to run on or interact with is also key.
I work in machine learning. I’d love to use Common Lisp or a statically-typed functional programming language like OCaml or Haskell, but I work with colleagues who know Python, and we rely heavily on Python’s extensive numerical computing and machine learning libraries. Promoting functional programming languages in this environment is like promoting Plan 9 to those who need Microsoft Office or the Adobe Creative Suite.
1. It’s easier to find developers who are skilled in the more popular languages.
2. Using a language is more than just its syntax and semantics; the ecosystem of tools and libraries for the language matters a lot, especially for commercial development. Interoperability between the language’s infrastructure and the desired platform the system needs to run on or interact with is also key.
I work in machine learning. I’d love to use Common Lisp or a statically-typed functional programming language like OCaml or Haskell, but I work with colleagues who know Python, and we rely heavily on Python’s extensive numerical computing and machine learning libraries. Promoting functional programming languages in this environment is like promoting Plan 9 to those who need Microsoft Office or the Adobe Creative Suite.