[ocaml-biz] target demographics

[Martin Jambon]

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

> Martin Jambon wrote:
> >
> > This effect for OCaml is already very clear in France. Many
> > students in computer science (which is only a subset of the future
> > programmers) already practiced some OCaml during their
> > studies, and when
> > you tell them that you develop a serious project in OCaml, they look
> > at you with a big smile which says: "You are too naive, OCaml is too
> > simple, it can't be used for industrial projects, but it
> > reminds me of the
> > time when I was young and naive too. Now I am paid for working, so it
> > has to be uninteresting, boring and I must give up all my dreams".
> >                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >                                 (maybe this part is specific to
> >                                  the French)
> >
>
> Well, at least people in France are aware of the technology.  Some
> industrial Success Stories could probably convert some of those already
> aware.  For instance, here are Python Success Stories:
> http://www.pythonology.com/success  This kind of effort would need to be
> done at http://wiki.cocan.org/
>
> Another demographic point to consider is that France is a unique (?)
> market for OCaml.  Well, you tell me if awareness exists in other EU
> countries in any great measure.  It certainly doesn't exist in the USA.
> Only Usenet geeks who have followed Functional Programming or the
> Shootout benchmarks know anything about it.  So, it is probably a good
> idea to consider "What will work in France?  What can we do in France
> that we can't yet do elsewhere?" because that's OCaml's center of
> gravity.

Let me explain my point of view about the situation in France:
France, especially in the few past years, is truly afraid of
any technological innovation and simply does not believe in progress.
This environment makes it very difficult to build a new technology
and make it successful.
The fact that OCaml was born in France and is of such a good quality is
due to the following:
- an excellent academic background
- public institutions that really don't care if research is productive or
  not
- a few people who decided that it is possible to create OCaml and
  make it what it is right now; they also had to ignore almost any
  judgement or recommendation expressed around them

This may be a little caricatural and I don't know the people who
developed OCaml, so I apologize if I hurt anyone.


Martin