Practicality of functional and logic languages?

I would like to know some opinions concerning functional and logic
programming languages (Haskell, Miranda, ML / Prolog) and their practical
usability for programming:


* Are they (1) toys for playful programmers, (2) something usable only
    at universities for never-ending research, or (3) important means for
    development of usable software products?
* Are there any (comercially?) successful applications written in functional
    or logic languages?
* How effective these applications are comparing with applications
    written in classic procedural languages like Pascal?


I want to start courses of these programming styles at the university,
so any opinions on the subject will clear up my situation.


          Miroslav Benes
--
Technical University of Brno E-mail: benes@dcse.fee.vutbr.cs
Faculty of Electrical Engineering Phone: +42-5-746111 / 238
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Bozetechova 2, CS-612 66 Brno FAX: +42-5-750252
--

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