I believe a functional language is good for inspiration, to get some new ideas about what a computer could possibly do, but once you know what you want, implementations should be done in a procedural language possibly with some code generation from somewhat functionally defined (possibly in part) modules. A good practical example of that would be just about any program of significance that uses a YACC parser.
Overall, I believe a good approach to software design would be to come up with some problem-specific language that allows you to succinctly explain to the computer what you want exactly, and then write a code generator that will translate the specs into lightning-fast code. The language does not have to be either functional or procedural, or be classified in any way. It just needs to be easy to learn, self-documenting, and intuitive.
-- Sasha Pachev Create online surveys at http://www.surveyz.com/
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