Standardized Ladder of Functional Programming [pdf]

The Reddits for the different functional programming languages are a good place to hangout (and a frequent source of blogs and videos on these topics), and for FP in non-FP languages, there are good Github communities (e.g. http://github.com/fantasyland/, no association with FIOL).

I'd also humbly suggest that LambdaConf 2017 (May 25-27) is a great place to learn more about functional programming. There will be a special two-day LambdaConf workshop prior to the conference that introduces the basics of functional programming (no background knowledge), another that is aimed at a slightly more experience audience, and then at the subsequent conference, plenty of workshops and sessions to learn many of these topics (and others).

It's a journey, but everyone can get there if they have the interest. Most of the resources out there (blogs, videos, even e-books) are free, and the remainder are low-cost if you are already working in tech.

Good luck and please just let any of us lurker functional programmers know if you need a hand. :)

Re: Standardized Ladder of Functional Programming [pdf]

#5

Post by pulisse » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 2:29 AM UTC

It says something slightly worrisome about the functional paradigm that "profile, debug, and optimize purely functional code with minimal sacrifice" is considered an expert-level skill.

Re: Standardized Ladder of Functional Programming [pdf]

#6

Post by hvs » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 3:13 AM UTC

When working with functional languages (my current choice is Scala), I do feel that they require a level of mastery that "traditional" imperative languages do not. I also feel that if computer science/software engineering is ever going to gain any sort of repeatability it will be through functional design.

That said, functional programming is incredibly difficult to do well without years of practice and the languages still suffer from limitations with performance that are hard to debug. While I still feel that functional programming is the "future" of software engineering, I feel it is quite a ways in the future.

Re: Standardized Ladder of Functional Programming [pdf]

#7

Post by stephen123 » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 3:22 AM UTC

hvs wrote: post #6

When working with functional languages (my current choice is Scala), I do feel that they require a level of mastery that "traditional" imperative languages do not. I also feel that if computer science/software engineering is ever going to gain any sort of repeatability it will be through functional design. That said, functional programming is incredibly difficult to do well without years of practice and the languages…

With time travel debuggers being the notable exception, where FP is enabling much better debugging.

http://debug.elm-lang.org/ as one example.

Re: Standardized Ladder of Functional Programming [pdf]

#8

Post by llambda » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 3:33 AM UTC

pulisse wrote: post #5

It says something slightly worrisome about the functional paradigm that "profile, debug, and optimize purely functional code with minimal sacrifice" is considered an expert-level skill.

Oh come on. Please do not troll. That says absolutely nothing about functional programming in general and absolutely everything about the publisher. Not only could this not be further from the truth, but it's a cheap and lazy attack on a rigorous and proven paradigm. Give it a try. You might just surprise yourself.

Re: Standardized Ladder of Functional Programming [pdf]

#9

Post by alexandercrohde » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 3:55 AM UTC

I get the sense that most engineers would almost never use, and never need to use, most things beyond advanced-beginner in this sheet. It may be fun to brag about knowing how to use "embedded DSL with combinators," but is that really the best thing to help your startup succeed?

I suppose I'm slightly bothered by the fetishizing of challenging knowledge for challenge sake. Most of the people I know who learn about "Embedded DSLs with combinators" and set theory seem to not be able to stop rubbing in how smart they find themselves, and yet strangely they never seem to be the most productive engineers (in terms of delivering useful and reliable code).

I know it can be a little disappointing to feel like there isn't a pot-of-gold at the end of the rabbit-hole, but this is no different than most disciplines. You use arithmetic daily, algebra weekly, calculus monthly, imaginary numbers annually or less.

Re: Standardized Ladder of Functional Programming [pdf]

#10

Post by bogomipz » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 4:04 AM UTC

buffyoda wrote: post #4

mrwinalot wrote: post #2

Any resources on where to go to learn these topics?

HaskellBook.com will teach you quite a number of them. :) The Reddits for the different functional programming languages are a good place to hangout (and a frequent source of blogs and videos on these topics), and for FP in non-FP languages, there are good Github communities (e.g. http://github.com/fantasyland/ , no association with FIOL). I'd also humbly suggest that LambdaConf 2017 (May 25-27) is a great place to l…

Is there anywhere to preview some content from HaskellBook.com ? Its a little pricey for to just take a chance without seeing any same content. The TOC looks good but that's not much indication of writing style.