) but haven't had the time to understand it yet. People who advocate for it though, seem to say that it is the future. If you look at it's strength's, you can see what they mean. * Its very fast - many times it is as fast as straight C (I think speed is a very legitimate issue. If you look at Pure Java applications, even on the fastest machines they are still fairly pokey in my opinion -- aside from the problem of garbage collection "freezes" -- see Sun's Forte) * It is a functional language and thus the programs written in it are more possible to prove correct * It is interpreted so it can be easily run everywhere * With object extensions, it can do all the things that object languages can do Downsides? I don't know enough about it to know. One may be that it is difficult to learn but that may just be my ignorance of the functional programming paradigm. My question to the list is: Are object-oriented functional languages the future instead of Ruby? ------_=_NextPart_001_01C11481.29131E20 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"

Instead of comparing Ruby to the past I would be interested in hearing Ruby compared against the future.

I was recently introduced to Objective Caml (http://www.ocaml.org) but haven't had the time to understand it yet. People who advocate for it though, seem to say that it is the future. If you look at it's strength's, you can see what they mean.

* Its very fast - many times it is as fast as straight C (I think speed is a very legitimate issue. If you look at Pure Java applications, even on the fastest machines they are still fairly pokey in my opinion -- aside from the problem of garbage collection "freezes" -- see Sun's Forte)

* It is a functional language and thus the programs written in it are more possible to prove correct

* It is interpreted so it can be easily run everywhere

* With object extensions, it can do all the things that object languages can do

Downsides? I don't know enough about it to know. One may be that it is difficult to learn but that may just be my ignorance of the functional programming paradigm.

My question to the list is: Are object-oriented functional languages the future instead of Ruby?

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