If Functional Programming Is So Great, Why Isn't Everyone Using It?

Functional programming has been considered to be an answer to many of the problems faced by software engineering today, especially in academic circles. Nevertheless, the large-scale adoption of functional programming in the mainstream of industry has been sluggish. Although there are a lot of different opinions about the underlying problem to this issue, it is hard to find literature that elaborates on the topic.

This report presents the results of a meta-study conducted on multiple aspects of the functional programming paradigm and its representing languages. It does so by identifying key issues responsible for the weak adoption of functional program- ming, and, more importantly, by proposing and evaluating measures that should positively influence the usage of functional programming languages in industrial, commercial and practical settings.