Yeah...replying to my own post. Heh.

I might also add that while functional languages might work well when dealing explicitly with parallel computing, they really tend to stink at everything else. i.e. Memory managment, device drivers, etc...

I have yet to see a Functional Language that can create an executable program that's as compact and efficient as it's Imperative counterpart. I'm not looking forward to the days of 100 megabyte device drivers, mandatory garbage collectors and runtime systems, and interpreters that eat up more resources than all the applications on a system combined.

If the baggy eyed academics care to financially reimburse people for all the extra hardware their gonna need, then by all means let's go for it.

I hear the FP people screaming that I'm not making a fair comparison. In a strict theoretical sense, that's true. Just as in academia, everything is theoretical. Out here in the real world the tools that I've had to work with haven't been all that impressive. They've been lovely as roses on surface, but as soon as I looked underneath the hood; it was all I could do to keep my composure.

Now, working with Synchronous Programming tools on the other hand have been a breeze. And they are tools that any functional developer should feel right at home with.(And this is coming from an Ada programmer.)

Right now, the problem is not so much with the tools, but with the paradigm in which the chip makers are operating.

They are still focused on a parallel "paradigm"(god I hate that word.) that's thirty years old.

Synchronous processors are, IMHO, a better solution to this than just throwing piles of cores on a die. Look at Project COSA for example. http://www.rebelscience.org/Cosas/COSA.htm

Something like this would be far more appropriate. Yes?

Patent fees. Getting a patent is not a free service, in fact its quite expensive. Its gotten to the point that an individual can't even begin to patent anything unless he is wealthy or has a large corporate backer. Without spending much on research the USPTO become quite profitable for the government.

a customized HOSTS file

Sure. But the origin of this and the easiest way to do it is with this little gem:

ftp://radsoft.net/pub/bloatbusters/silencer.zip