It is tempting to conclude from this record that functional languages don't have what it takes. They may make sense for certain limited applications, and contain useful concepts to be imported into other languages; but imperative and object-oriented languages are simply better suited to the vast majority of software engineering tasks.
Tempting as it is, this conclusion is wrong. I've been using OCaml in a production environment for nearly a decade, and over that time I have become convinced that functional languages, and in particular, statically typed ones such as OCaml and Haskell, are excellent general-purpose programming tools—better than any existing mainstream language. They also have an enormous range, being well suited for small scripting tasks as well as large-scale high-performance applications. They are not the right tool for every job, but they come surprisingly close.
