[ocaml-biz] FP stealth marketing

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
>
> The question with Python is whether anyone's going to solve its
> performance problems over the next 3 years.  People are working on it.
> I'm not sure, from either a theoretical standpoint or a practical one,
> what can happen.  If Python were to solve its performance problems, it
> would be stiff competition for OCaml.  OCaml would then have to prove
> that type safety and industrial scale-up is a more important tradeoff
> than Python's ease of use.

And unfortunately, OCaml could easily lose this battle.  Python doesn't
require anyone to learn any new paradigms.  It's imperative OO.  Getting
industry to embrace Functional Programming is a major strategic
dimension / problem for OCaml.  Sure you have a choice in OCaml.  But if
OCaml is waving around "this odd functional stuff," why choose it at
all?

Somehow, we need to advance some of the causes of FP, without receiving
the negative labeling of FP.  We don't really want the mainstream
imperative programmers thinking too hard about why OCaml is working for
them.  Ideally, years later they'd discover, "Oh, so I've been doing
something called FP?"

I might cynically go so far as to say that OCaml marketing materials
shouldn't use the phrase "Functional Programming" at all.  All FP means
to an OO imperative guy is "weird and different and something I have to
learn."  It is automatically perceived as a disadvantage, and it will be
a long time before FP is a hot industry buzzword.  It will require
greater marketing efforts than we are capable of.

Advantages of particular programming techniques should be explained
without any reference to FP.  In fact, that would keep FP honest.  Why
is approach X an advantage, if all you can say about is "well it's FP" ?

I've heard that various FP features are creeping into Java, C#, and
Python.  We should make a list of such features, and make note of the
buzzwords and marketspeak that are being used about them.  Then say,
"OCaml has these features, only better."  Like Generics or whatever is
hot.  But never mention FP.


Cheers,                         www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.