[MLton] Trip Report -- Commercial Users of Functional Programming

[Stephen Weeks]

> Was any discussion given to existing attempts in this space that
> have not fared well (such as Nice, Pizza, D)?

Nope.  It was Mieszko Lis of Bluespec who mentioned this one, in the
context of extending Verilog.  Perhaps it goes hand in hand with his
other point about hardware designers being more open to new tools than
ordinary programmers.  A couple of others mentioned a related point
when designing DSLs about making a core language that is easily
understandable to imperative programmers, and having functional
languages nicely fit on top.

Oh yeah, that reminds me about a point that several speakers mentioned
as being important marketing when trying to convince managers to adopt
FP -- do not use the phrase "new language"!  The term "new tool"
evokes positive associations and not the instinctive fear that "new
language" evokes.