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0 pointsUK-Al052y ago0 comments

I'm not saying people interested in OCaml are the best. I'm saying you don't have to worry about smart people being incapable of understanding OCaml.

You got the direction the wrong way around.

Ask to introduce OCaml at any company. The first thing is they're worried about is not being able to find people. To which the answer is to train them. But then they're worried some people just won't be able to learn ocaml quickly enough. To which my answer is hire people who are good enough to learn it quickly. But then they get worried those people are expensive. Ultimately it comes down to not being willing to pay.

0 comments

sevagh2y ago

I think you equating people that aren't OCaml or Jane Street caliber as "bottom of the bucket" was a touch inflammatory.

UK-Al05OP2y ago

Companies that want to maintain the ability to outsource or hire cheap developers if push comes to shove is actually pretty common. They want commodity labour.

DaiPlusPlus2y ago

To be fair, another reason for avoiding OCaml, or other kinds of almost-esoteric tooling is a business need for longevity of support and of the ecosystem: if you choose something like Java you have a reasonable belief that, at any point in the next 20 years, if something breaks then you’ll be able to call a phone-number and pay through the nose to get it working again. Companies don’t mind paying large amounts of money for an expert, provided those experts are available. But in 2024 try finding an expert for some dBase 4GL system from 1998 that only runs on AS400.

cess112y ago

OCaml has been going since 1996 and is managed by an academic institution in France. It's also much more portable and malleable than dBase for DOS on old iron.

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