Comment by kakaylor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kakaylor | Hacker News Reader

This essay does assume, of course, that you can find enough developers in your locality that can write software competently in Python.

A few years ago I developed software (engine diagnostic/programming) for a large semi-truck manufacture in the Midwest. Our primary concern when selecting a language for a new product/project was whether or not we could find developers who were competent in that language. That almost always meant we chose Java because that is what our local developer pool was competent in.

That actually makes a lot of sense. While the Python Paradox may be partially true, it only makes sense to use in selecting a language when you can't screen applicants.

Once one can screen applicants, I think you're just as likely to find good Java programmers as you are to find good Haskell developers.

  >> I think you're just as likely to find good Java programmers as you are to find good Haskell developers.

While there are certainly more good Java programmers than good Haskell programmers, I think that the percentage of Haskell programmers that are good is higher than the percentage of Java programmers that are good.

  >> Once one can screen applicants,

It is a lot of work to screen applicants. If I were hiring a C++ developer and had two similar looking resumes, I would certainly call the developer that listed Haskell experience first.

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