3 ms·

You summed it up nicely. After writing my comment, I realized that imperative programming is so much more difficult than functional programming that in a way,

You summed it up nicely. After writing my comment, I realized that imperative programming is so much more difficult than functional programming that in a way, it's the majority of the work of programming. Anyone can learn to use a spreadsheet, but it takes years of dedication to master debugging enterprise software. So there will always be huge demand for that skill, and so colleges should probably continue building it in students. I'm still in mourning though imagining how far programmers could go if they weren't stuck endlessly debugging imperative code that will never be deterministic or free of side effects. Lots of lost potential there. I'm coming up on 3 decades of experience doing that and it feels like well over 90% of the code I've written was a waste of time. I guess it paid the bills though.

mcphage 8y ago
> I realized that imperative programming is so much more difficult than functional programming that in a way, it's the majority of the work of programming. Anyone can learn to use a spreadsheet, but it takes years of dedication to master debugging enterprise software. Anyone can learn to program spreadsheets, because spreadsheets realize that state is the most important thing, and puts it front and center—hiding the calculations. Most programming paradigms are about manipulating the calculations, and the state is only visible when the program is running. As long as programming tries to avoid state, it'll be hard for most people to learn.
- seventhtiger 8y ago
  What you just said really struck a chord with me. I do tend to ignore state because it's less accessible. The result is that my code gets more esoteric and abstract while the changes I need to make to state come very slowly. On the other hand I've made spreadsheets as complicated as small applications I've made, but the cognitive load feels significantly lighter. How can we bring state forward during development?

mcphage 8y ago

> I realized that imperative programming is so much more difficult than functional programming that in a way, it's the majority of the work of programming. Anyone can learn to use a spreadsheet, but it takes years of dedication to master debugging enterprise software. Anyone can learn to program spreadsheets, because spreadsheets realize that state is the most important thing, and puts it front and center—hiding the calculations. Most programming paradigms are about manipulating the calculations, and the state is only visible when the program is running. As long as programming tries to avoid state, it'll be hard for most people to learn.

seventhtiger 8y ago
What you just said really struck a chord with me. I do tend to ignore state because it's less accessible. The result is that my code gets more esoteric and abstract while the changes I need to make to state come very slowly. On the other hand I've made spreadsheets as complicated as small applications I've made, but the cognitive load feels significantly lighter. How can we bring state forward during development?