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Author doesn't seem to understand that skilled programmers can be productive in almost any language. Experience in the domain is more important.

IshKebab 1y ago
But it's probably true that the developers who want to write OCaml have nowhere else to go really. And they're probably smarter on average than the average C++ developer. Still... I seriously doubt this is much of a consideration for why they use OCaml.
- galangalalgol 1y ago
  I can see it working for an opposite reason. Someone who has been paid decently to write mathematically challenging software in an interesting and ergonomic language would probably want a premium to go somewhere they use a boring annoying language to solve lots of trivial problems. It is an extension of why game dev and to a lesser extent, embedded dev, pay less than full stack even if they are typically more challenging.
  - learningstud 1y ago
    Lesser pay is simply due to less demand. It simply reflects the overall needs of living people.
- owl_vision 1y ago
  Many years ago, I interviewed with Jane Street. They asked me C++ questions and if I am willing to learn OCaml. Sure, I can learn any language. The position was given to someone else who already knew OCaml. They use OCaml for everything, building software to distributing it etc. That's my interview experience with them. I think they chose that language because it can be as speedy as C++ with proper knowledge and optimizations. I do not know OCaml besides learning it when I worked with researchers/mathematicians who wrote OCaml and i had to understand the code.
rafaelmn 1y ago
I've seen plenty of "write C/Java in any language" folk, working with them wasn't something I enjoyed and usually tried to distance from the mess. A few of them were domain experts but the codebase they produced was a nightmare to work on. I've swapped a decent number of tech stacks throughout my career. When I haven't used a stack for a few years it took months to get up to speed. Especially at a senior level where I should be capable of making design decisions, codebase level technical improvements, team workflow optimization, etc. Obviously domain knowledge is important but I wouldn't trivialize technical side.

IshKebab 1y ago

But it's probably true that the developers who want to write OCaml have nowhere else to go really. And they're probably smarter on average than the average C++ developer. Still... I seriously doubt this is much of a consideration for why they use OCaml.

galangalalgol 1y ago
I can see it working for an opposite reason. Someone who has been paid decently to write mathematically challenging software in an interesting and ergonomic language would probably want a premium to go somewhere they use a boring annoying language to solve lots of trivial problems. It is an extension of why game dev and to a lesser extent, embedded dev, pay less than full stack even if they are typically more challenging.
- learningstud 1y ago
  Lesser pay is simply due to less demand. It simply reflects the overall needs of living people.
owl_vision 1y ago
Many years ago, I interviewed with Jane Street. They asked me C++ questions and if I am willing to learn OCaml. Sure, I can learn any language. The position was given to someone else who already knew OCaml. They use OCaml for everything, building software to distributing it etc. That's my interview experience with them. I think they chose that language because it can be as speedy as C++ with proper knowledge and optimizations. I do not know OCaml besides learning it when I worked with researchers/mathematicians who wrote OCaml and i had to understand the code.

rafaelmn 1y ago

I've seen plenty of "write C/Java in any language" folk, working with them wasn't something I enjoyed and usually tried to distance from the mess. A few of them were domain experts but the codebase they produced was a nightmare to work on. I've swapped a decent number of tech stacks throughout my career. When I haven't used a stack for a few years it took months to get up to speed. Especially at a senior level where I should be capable of making design decisions, codebase level technical improvements, team workflow optimization, etc. Obviously domain knowledge is important but I wouldn't trivialize technical side.