Re: [Caml-list] suggestion: do not link to www.ocaml.org

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

On Tue, Apr 13, 2004 at 09:32:26PM -0700, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
> > No, it suggests that OCaml is a real language that can be
> > used to solve real problems quickly,
> 
> To you.  And I submit, you are a techie who thinks the word 'hacker' has
> positive connotations.  Suits don't see it that way.  Not that I'm a

Sure, but -- who gives a damn?  The site is clearly aimed at programmers
who will understand.  Your argument sounds like saying Slashdot is
poorly marketed to suits because its slogan mentions "nerds".  That's
true, but irrelevant; Slashdot isn't *trying* to attract suits.

> point is if you want to grow a language base, there are other
> demographics to appeal to besides techies.

Are you sure?  Every place I've been -- large and small -- the
decision-makers certainly sought the input of techies and, if the suits
were making choices on language selection at all, were certainly not
doing it by viewing a single web site.

> > Why should they?  They're not a .com.  Python is doing quite well, I'd
> > say.
> 
> Sure.  A 2% market share can't be wrong.  ;-)  Beats OCaml by a mile
> though.

You have no idea what the Python "market share" is, and also have shown
no reason why it's relevant anyway.  How do you define market share for
something that is not sold, and thus has no "market" in the conventional
sense to begin with?

Sure, Python (or Perl) is going to appear to be a lot lower than .NET
and VB if you go by units sold.  That does not mean it is less popular
or less useful.  It also is misleading; VB has a 0% market share among
Unix programmers.

-- John

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