>Why are so many programming jobs (and libraries) in brain-dead languages (such as Java) rather than functional-programming languages (e.g. Scala, Ocaml, Clojure, Haskell)? Because while the Java+IDE environment makes it extremely difficult for an individual engineer to have a 1.5+ impact –there are two cases in recorded history of programmers breaking 2.0 in Java; one is Martin Odersky, who wrote Scala, and the other is Rich Hickey, who wrote Clojure– the state of the tooling makes it possible for the 0.7′s and 0.9′s to get a 0.1- to 0.3-point bump, so long as they stay within their IDEs and don’t have to work with a computer (gasp!) at the (God, no!) command line.
I don't see how anyone with practical experience developing commercial software could write something like this. The tool set simply isn't that important. Plus, the idea Java programmers are afraid of the command line is... well, interesting at best.