[ocaml-biz] target demographics

[Brian Hurt]

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

> Who do you think got the Linux marketing job done?  Tux or Redhat?
> Actually, I'm not fully conversant with the history of Linux marketing,
> as I dropped out of the Linux world in 1996.  If anyone remembers the
> history of what paved the way, we'd welcome the comments.  My impression
> is that *much* is owed to Redhat.

IMHO, the commercial adoption of Linux has a heck of a lot more to do with 
Redhat than it does with Tux.

> 
> When doing a similar effort for Python, we identified 3 demographics
> that matter for getting a language adopted:
> 
> - techies
> - suits
> - educators
> 
> Those are 3 different language adoption strategies.  The 'educator'
> strategy is to get the stuff to be popular in academia, to get it taught
> in courses.  Then all the undergrads go into industry, and poison the
> industry with whatever they've learned in school.  

Actually, I think that works backwards.  Most people starting to learn 
programming are looking to get jobs in the industry.  So they want to know 
that what they're learning is applicable to getting a job in industry.  
Now, those of use who already know programming and know multiple 
languages know that there are a huge boatload of ideas and concepts which 
are the same from language to language.  It doesn't matter what language 
you learn them in.

But, pretty much by definition, the people who don't know programming 
don't know this.  So there is a huge demand by the students to be taught a 
language that they can look at the help wanted ads of the local paper and 
see lots of demand for.  Thus the popularity of C++ and Java as first 
programming languages, despite their manifest unfitness for said role (you 
don't learn to fly in a 747, and you don't learn to drive in a Formula-1 
race car, despite the fact that those are what the professionals 
fly/drive).

If Ocaml becomes popular in industry, this natural pressure will also make 
it popular in academia.  On the other hand, if Ocaml becomes popular as a 
first programming language, it won't become popular as a professional 
programming language.  Instead, students will grumble at being taught a 
"useless" first language, and will dump Ocaml for the "real" programming 
languages that Industry uses at their first chance.  The experiences of 
Pascal and Scheme confirm this.

Of course, this leads me to exactly where you are- convert the suits 
first.

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Brian