[Haskell-cafe] Non-technical Haskell question
Jason Bailey
azrael at demonlords.net
Fri Dec 3 10:45:32 EST 2004
Keean Schupke wrote:
> Jason Bailey wrote:
>
>> I mean I think its a really cool idea, and I'm having fun learning
>> it. But I would be hard pressed to come up with a justification to
>> introduce this into our business environment.
>>
> How about increased productivity, and more stuff right first time...
>
> Keean.
>
>
No offense but those are just catch phrases. They can support a
justification but won't work as a justification in its own right.
Here are some questions that I would expect to get from business.
Q:"What have I heard about this technology?"
A: Probably nothing. Haskell isn't very well known in the programming
community (out of 6 co-workers asked, one had used Haskell in a single
college class), let alone the business community. Business has become
very wary about accepting technologies that are obscure.
Q:"What can I do with this language that I can't do now?"
A:Well nothing. It can certainly do some things better then the current
languages out there, but its just another general purpose language.
Q:"Will it require training?"
A: Oh yes, we're talking about a different way of looking at programs.
On the surface level it should be fairly easy to pick up but it will
take some time before the engineers are able to produce decent work. Oh
and there are no training classes we can send people to. They will have
to learn on their own.
Q:"Whats the market like for Haskell programmers?"
A: Well there isn't one. Which means that if business was going to
advertise for someone with haskell programming knowledge they are going
to end some spending a premium on them.
Q:"Why should we support yet another programming language?"
A: Because this is a better language. (Wouldn't work as an answer but I
would give it a try. )
And this is just the business side. I kinda shudder at the thought of
telling a room full of engineers that they need to abandon their current
status as object level gurus and learn some language that the majority
of them have never heard of. :)
I think the most important aspect of getting haskell acceptance is mind
share. Both from a programming perspective and a business perspective.
People need to have heard of haskell and be familiar with the concepts
behind it before they will be willing to give it a try. Also the larger
the corporation the less likely this is going to happen. But with mind
share I can see smaller corps and smaller IT departments moving over to it.
Jason
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