Functional Programming Is Not Popular Because It Is Weird
I’ve seen people be genuinely puzzled about why functional programming is not more popular. For example I’m currently reading “Out of the Tar Pit” where after arguing for functional programming the authors say
Still, the fact remains that such arguments have been insufficient to result in widespread adoption of functional programming. We must therefore conclude that the main weakness of functional programming is the flip side of its main strength – namely that problems arise when (as is often the case) the system to be built must maintain state of some kind.
I think the reason for the lack of popularity is much simpler: Writing functional code is often backwards and can feel more like solving puzzles than like explaining a process to the computer. In functional languages I often know what I want to say, but it feels like I have to solve a puzzle in order to express it to the language. Functional programming is just a bit too weird.
Probably Dance 