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I recently watched a video [0] that contrasted all of the OO Design Patterns with Functional Programming equivalents. After reading about how this author wants

I recently watched a video [0] that contrasted all of the OO Design Patterns with Functional Programming equivalents. After reading about how this author wants to make "glue" code "first class" and how the Unix pipe operator is an example of single-character-glue-code, my thoughts immediately went to the aforementioned video presentation. Perhaps my "glue code" is simply gold-old "function composition"? [0] Scott Wlaschin "Functional programming design patterns" https://vimeo.com/113588389 https://vimeo.com/113588389 [Edit] Spoiler alert: each of the design patterns reviewed and contrasted in the video I mentioned seemed to "disappear" in FP since the equivalent is simply to use functions and/or function composition. Recently transitioning from C# to F# for my .NET Core projects, I felt the "glue code" the author mentions disappear in a similar manner with greatly-reduced code bloat.

BoiledCabbage 5y ago
He's also got some other great videos on software design.
shadytrees 5y ago
I think function composition is powerful glue, indeed. Attach some side effect to the arrow, and all of a sudden you can implement a state machine, a reader environment, promises, or even continuations.
mpweiher 5y ago
Yes, function composition is one kind of glue, and it's good that we have it. But it's only one kind of glue, and often not particularly useful (see the part of the post about algorithm DSLs). As John Hughes put it in Why Functional Programming Matters, we need more kinds of glue. See https://blog.metaobject.com/2019/02/why-architecture-oriented-programming.html https://blog.metaobject.com/2019/02/why-architecture-oriente... As to Design Patterns: the Smalltalk version of the Design Patterns book is a small booklet, most of the patterns just go away. As to the video: tried to watch, got to the "it's functions, functions functions and again functions" slide. For OO, it would be "it's objects, objects, objects and again, objects". Sadly, most FP-centered critiques of OO are at this level, or even worse. :-/ Overall, you're going to have more patterns in FP because its model of computation is less powerful. (See Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming https://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html https://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html for a definition of relative power ).
bern4444 5y ago
Scott is a great speaker and does an incredible job at talking about and explaining a ton of cool ideas in functional programming and makes his slides in F# easy to understand and apply those ideas. Absolutely a great video and he has many others in addition to his site fsharpforfunandprofit.com

BoiledCabbage 5y ago

He's also got some other great videos on software design.

shadytrees 5y ago

I think function composition is powerful glue, indeed. Attach some side effect to the arrow, and all of a sudden you can implement a state machine, a reader environment, promises, or even continuations.

mpweiher 5y ago

Yes, function composition is one kind of glue, and it's good that we have it. But it's only one kind of glue, and often not particularly useful (see the part of the post about algorithm DSLs). As John Hughes put it in Why Functional Programming Matters, we need more kinds of glue. See https://blog.metaobject.com/2019/02/why-architecture-oriented-programming.html https://blog.metaobject.com/2019/02/why-architecture-oriente... As to Design Patterns: the Smalltalk version of the Design Patterns book is a small booklet, most of the patterns just go away. As to the video: tried to watch, got to the "it's functions, functions functions and again functions" slide. For OO, it would be "it's objects, objects, objects and again, objects". Sadly, most FP-centered critiques of OO are at this level, or even worse. :-/ Overall, you're going to have more patterns in FP because its model of computation is less powerful. (See Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming https://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html https://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html for a definition of relative power ).

bern4444 5y ago

Scott is a great speaker and does an incredible job at talking about and explaining a ton of cool ideas in functional programming and makes his slides in F# easy to understand and apply those ideas. Absolutely a great video and he has many others in addition to his site fsharpforfunandprofit.com