Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
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Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#2The thing is that any imperative programmers who have composed SQL subqueries have have been doing this kind of thinking for years whether they realise it or not. The only substantial difference is that the data is in the process' memory as maps and lists as opposed to relational tables in the db. You end up with exactly the same kind of patterns of composition in the code.
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#3Some ideas that are ubiquitous within functional programming are certainly on the rise, for example:
- functions as first-class entities in programming languages, and consequences like higher-order functions and partial evaluation;
- a common set of basic data structures (set, sequence, dictionary, tree, etc.) and generalised operations for manipulating and combining them (map, filter, reduce, intersection, union, zip, convert a tree to a sequence breadth-first or depth-first, etc.);
- a more declarative programming style, writing specifications rather than instructions;
- a programming style that emphasizes the data flow more than the control flow.
I see these as distinct, though certainly not independent, concepts.
I’m not sure whether functional programming itself is really on the rise, not to the extent of becoming a common approach in the mainstream programming world any time soon. I don’t think we’ve figured out how to cope with effectful systems and the real world having a time dimension very well yet. (I don’t think we’ve figured it out very well in imperative programming yet either, but the weakness is less damaging there because there is an implicit time dimension whether you want it or not.)
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#4Some ideas that are ubiquitous within functional programming are certainly on the rise, for example: - functions as first-class entities in programming languages, and consequences like higher-order functions and partial evaluation; - a common set of basic data structures (set, sequence, dictionary, tree, etc.) and generalised operations for manipulating and combining them (map, filter, reduce, intersection, union, zi…
What is your third point if not functional programming?
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#5Some ideas that are ubiquitous within functional programming are certainly on the rise, for example: - functions as first-class entities in programming languages, and consequences like higher-order functions and partial evaluation; - a common set of basic data structures (set, sequence, dictionary, tree, etc.) and generalised operations for manipulating and combining them (map, filter, reduce, intersection, union, zi…
What is your third point if not functional programming?
declarative vs imperative is kind of a subjective thing but functional programming is not the only way to do declarative programming (logic programming and SQL are two examples that come to mind)
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#6Some ideas that are ubiquitous within functional programming are certainly on the rise, for example: - functions as first-class entities in programming languages, and consequences like higher-order functions and partial evaluation; - a common set of basic data structures (set, sequence, dictionary, tree, etc.) and generalised operations for manipulating and combining them (map, filter, reduce, intersection, union, zi…
What is your third point if not functional programming?
Functional programming, by definition, is expressing a program as a function to be evaluated. That implies that, at least to some extent, all functional programs are written in a declarative style.
However, we use a declarative style for other kinds of language as well: Prolog, SQL and CSS are three very different examples, none of which is a functional programming language similar to ML or Haskell or Clojure.
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is your third point if not functional programming?
Functional programming, by definition, is expressing a program as a function to be evaluated. That implies that, at least to some extent, all functional programs are written in a declarative style. However, we use a declarative style for other kinds of language as well: Prolog, SQL and CSS are three very different examples, none of which is a functional programming language similar to ML or Haskell or Clojure.
I don't think there is one uniform definition of functional programming. It's a vague characteristic of a language in the same sense as "object oriented."
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#8Some ideas that are ubiquitous within functional programming are certainly on the rise, for example: - functions as first-class entities in programming languages, and consequences like higher-order functions and partial evaluation; - a common set of basic data structures (set, sequence, dictionary, tree, etc.) and generalised operations for manipulating and combining them (map, filter, reduce, intersection, union, zi…
I tend to agree. It's a lot like with object-oriented programming: "Hey, this is so awesome! You can encapsulate data, have well-defined interfaces, enforce separation-of-concerns, and, and ..." --> Er, I've always been able to do all that, I just didn't call it OO.
That said, I'm still doing what I can to assimilate those techniques and understand where to apply them.
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#9Some ideas that are ubiquitous within functional programming are certainly on the rise, for example: - functions as first-class entities in programming languages, and consequences like higher-order functions and partial evaluation; - a common set of basic data structures (set, sequence, dictionary, tree, etc.) and generalised operations for manipulating and combining them (map, filter, reduce, intersection, union, zi…
Yes, a lot of these are characteristic of functional programming, and many are being adopted. But I think that the idea of using mathematically pure functions---programming without side effects or mutation---is a/the key idea behind functional programming. And it's this purity that divides the communities. You can take high-order functions and folds and put them in just about any language, and you could put OOP concepts like subtype polymorphism into functional languages. But there's a line that neither class of languages can cross over, and that's mutable state.
I know that some developers are beginning to lean in the direction of functional programming by relying on const annotations and adopting a functional style. And I'm very excited and hopeful about the overall trend.
Re: Functional thinking: Why functional programming is on the rise
#10The thing is that any imperative programmers who have composed SQL subqueries have have been doing this kind of thinking for years whether they realise it or not. The only substantial difference is that the data is in the process' memory as maps and lists as opposed to relational tables in the db. You end up with exactly the same kind of patterns of composition in the code.
Completely disagree. Composing SQL queries even on multiple levels (as in subqueries) might involve a way of thinking that remotely resembles to functional programming, it is way too simplistic for comparison with real world functional programs, at least in my experience.
I know I grasped SQL really quickly, and still get puzzled by Haskell after 6 months of trying.