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Comment by jesusmichael | Hacker News Reader

where would this "renaissance" be taking place? The most popular languages are java and C...

Renaissance means resurgence, not dominance. Re = again, naissance = birth.

10 years ago I would see the very occasional article about Lisp. Now FP discussion is everywhere. Whether it's being used in prod systems or not, FP is certainly gaining attention.

There's been a discussion of object vs functional for 30 years. I've yet to hear a compelling argument for one or the other, but OOP seems to be easier for more people to grasp since it strives to replicate the attributes/methods/inheritances of real world concepts/objects.

Same confusion...I know there are bunch of open source projects built using FP became popular recently, like Storm.

Still, as far as I know, the work horses in some of the biggest firms in the industry are those not-so-FP languages, like Java, C++ and Python.

FP is very cool, but I think it has yet reached that far to be treated more seriously like those more mature ones, which represent not only the language itself, but also the ecosystem behind: tools, libraries and community.

Java just added lambdas.

Smalltalk has had blocks since at least 1976.

lambdas in java extend the object model not destroy it. So I don't get your point.

JavaScript has both beat for deployment base and developer population, I wager.

in our bubble this may ring true but pretty much the whole rest of the world is running on Java and C

Erm, you're ignoring a little thing called "The Internet as Experienced By Millions".

1. erm, you are ignoring a little thing called "embedded systems".

2. what is the crossover of internet-capable devices also running Java or C? like 100%?

3. you are only defending your assumption that there is a bigger install base, not a bigger developer base.

I'll give you embedded systems for deployment, but the number of embedded systems programmers is dwarfed by the number of web developers.

The problem with the TIOBE index is that it also seems to factor in courses and services--I wonder if there is a straight-up developer census.

That'd solve the question rather thoroughly. :)

embedded systems is not a defense that there are more C programmers than Javascript. it is a defense that Javascript does not have a larger install base.

embedded systems + financial/government sectors + academia + video games + mobile apps (compared to simply "web development") is my defense against the notion that there are more Javascript developers.

I very much doubt that since java, c and python are the basis of most CS programs.

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