[Haskell-cafe] Elevator pitch for Haskell.

[Devin Mullins]

Stefan O'Rear wrote:
> I'd like to add that, until very recently, Haskell wasn't even 
> *trying* to be "ready for prime time".

This is a subject that comes up in Ruby-land quite a bit. It piques my
curiosity. Obviously, Haskell is not, on its own, sentient. (Nor is the
Haskell community a hivemind.) *People* want Haskell to be "ready for 
prime time." Who (besides SPJ) are those people? Why?

As for the latter, the reason I hear most often is "I want to be able to
use the language at my job."* Yet, I have heard two presentations from
people who studied the history of Smalltalk/Java/etc. and came to the
(informal) conclusion that the very things that enable the language to
cross the chasm are the very things that make people like us want to
start looking for a new language.

A second reason, that Neil mentioned, was "I want more libraries." I
have no argument with that. :)

Any others?

* This is somewhat odd, as the strong majority of vocal Rubyists /are/
using it at their job. Perhaps they're preparing for the condition that
they lose their job and have to take one up at a Fortune 500 or something.

Devin