Dinesh Vadhia wrote:
> The recent thread of notes to "Could Haskell be taken over by Microsoft?"
> bears out what I've been thinking over the past year about Haskell which is
> ... "How on Earth is this Haskell stuff, not withstanding its merits, ever
> going to make it in the real world?". From what I've read and seen I really
> see Haskell as nothing more than another 'interesting' computer language but
> ultimately confined to the academic/research community.
>
> The situation would change dramatically if say, a Microsoft, picked it up
> and ran with it. But they wouldn't do it unless they had full control over
> the language which the Haskell community wouldn't allow.
Every popular language, except Java, is in some respect "public domain". The
language definitions of C, C++, Modula-2, Oberon, Pearl, you name it, are all
public domain and not under control of a single company but by a commission or
a group of researchers. These languages have good public domain implementations
as well. I do believe that a language must be public domain and have public
domain implementations to gain success in the long run. Being public domain
makes a language accessible to everybody from students and hobbyists to large
corporations. I know a company that works for military (NATO and the DoD) that
changed from Ada to C++ solely because they could get the Gnu C++ compiler for
free for all their supported platforms. Few languages can do without commercial
implementations, though, since there are companies that will not use a PD
compiler for their work. We need the best of both worlds.
> On the other hand, Haskell could follow the Linux route with a GNU license.
> No problem with this except how many customers are seriously going to take
> the leap of faith. It is a sad fact of life that the majority of the "real"
> market consists of conservative customers who look for a number of
> (non-product) things from a technology component including supplier status,
> pricing, support, and so on. Having a a number of small companies providing
> Haskell support won't cut the mustard in the real 'big' world.
I think you seriously underestimate the GNU/Linux world. The GNU C and C++
compilers are probably the most popular compilers in the world. It's hard to
prove, but I don't think C++ had gained its very large popularity had it not
been for its PD definition and its good PD implementations.
I believe it is possible to make Haskell very popular if we focus more on its
practical use. We should focus more on developing libraries for "everyday
programming" and on improving code quality. Sure, it will benefit Haskell if a
commercial company develops libraries and more optimized compilers, but we, the
Haskell community, could also do it ourselves if more people got involved, also
outside the universities. The Linux community has shown that an OS can be built
by a large number of volunteers, so why not a compiler, development environment
and library?
> If the Haskell community wants Haskell to be a significant product in the
> computer language and software development markets then the only route open
> is to setup a company whose sole purpose is that ... Everything else (for
> the Haskell community) is just wishful thinking.
Can you mention any example of a company that has been established to maintain
a programming language, except JavaSoft, which can exist only because it is
sponsored by Sun?
regards, Joergen
--
Joergen Froejk Kjaersgaard
Systems Engineer, Informaticon Systemeering
...Linux - for freedom of choice... www.linux.org
