[Ur] [Bulk] Seeking Ur/Web case studies

[Adam Chlipala]

Manu wrote:
> I've wanted to code a very very small CMS and I suppose I could do it 
> in both Ur/Web and say, Django
>
> unfortunately I can offer you no guarantee on when I would get around 
> doin' it.
> When do you want to collect this data ideally ?

I'm hoping to include this kind of data in a submission to PLDI 2010 
(http://cs.stanford.edu/pldi10/), which has a November 20 deadline.

> My intuition is that for somebody familiar with dynamic languages 
> (Django/Rails) and used to imperative programming, UR would take more 
> time
> Maybe Java/C# people willing to take the plunge and learn FP would 
> fare better
> The all-round programmer familiar with ML or Haskell, would certainly 
> be find UR/Web a win, since a lot of errors would be caught at compile 
> time...

That's my general take, too, if you replace "used to imperative 
programming" with "not experienced with ML and Haskell programming."  
Plenty of statically-typed FP people also have experience with Ruby, 
Python, etc., but still prefer ML or Haskell. :)

> The web space is awash with dynamic languages (PHP, Python, Ruby), I 
> am not sure why, maybe :
> - most web sites are not deemed safety-critical pieces of software 
> (the public is used to web sites "not working well all the time")
> - a lot of web programmers have no theoretical background in CS and 
> dynamic languages seem easier (in the sense 'eat now, pay the bill 
> later')

I usually say that this is because dynamic languages make it easier to 
write code that _almost_ works. ;)