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> I would argue functional programming is incredibly popular but less common in the workplace It would help if someone defined what constitutes "using function

by antris 5y ago

> I would argue functional programming is incredibly popular but less common in the workplace It would help if someone defined what constitutes "using functional programming". I mean, this is functional programming: function add(a, b) { return a + b } From my experience, every developer does functional programming to a certain extent, it's just the extent that varies.

iainmerrick 5y ago
Yes, that's functional programming! I think you're right to say that many programmers use FP much of the time. The modern trend is definitely to borrow many FP techniques and use them inside an imperative shell. Your example is strict FP, where a and b are fully evaluated before add() executes. There's also non-strict FP, where everything uses lazy evaluation by default. That has some big advantages but also a few pitfalls, and generally makes things significantly weirder when compared to imperative languages. Pure FP is where you only have functions and expressions, no variables at all. I think that's where most mainstream programmers draw the line -- sometimes you just want to store something somewhere, without being forced to jump through what seem like weird hoops. The original elevator pitch for Haskell was that it's a "non-strict, purely functional" language (aimed a unifying a bunch of different research languages, plus the proprietary language Miranda).
hasmanean 5y ago
Functions were invented by functional languages…but they originally were a lot more flexible than the way most procedural languages use them now. Let’s try rewriting your example this way add = function(a,b) { + a b } Why is this better? Because + is a function, and add is an object, so you can then refactor the code to say this add = + Try doing that in C. As I see it the code for some programs has a high degree of symmetry (ie repeated patterns), and the best language is a notation the let’s you capture that the best. If you find yourself cutting, pasting and modifying things slightly each time, then your language is holding you back. Test-script code is the best example of this…particularly hardware tests. You have the same code copied and pasted dozens of hundreds of times. Thoreau once said that government is best that governs least. That language is best that makes you type the least.
- kaba0 5y ago
  > add = + > Try doing that in C. Function pointers. They are abused to no avail in C programs. It has the original callback hell, not JS. (And that is mainly because C has no proper way for abstractions)

by antris 5y ago

iainmerrick 5y ago

Yes, that's functional programming! I think you're right to say that many programmers use FP much of the time. The modern trend is definitely to borrow many FP techniques and use them inside an imperative shell. Your example is strict FP, where a and b are fully evaluated before add() executes. There's also non-strict FP, where everything uses lazy evaluation by default. That has some big advantages but also a few pitfalls, and generally makes things significantly weirder when compared to imperative languages. Pure FP is where you only have functions and expressions, no variables at all. I think that's where most mainstream programmers draw the line -- sometimes you just want to store something somewhere, without being forced to jump through what seem like weird hoops. The original elevator pitch for Haskell was that it's a "non-strict, purely functional" language (aimed a unifying a bunch of different research languages, plus the proprietary language Miranda).

hasmanean 5y ago

Functions were invented by functional languages…but they originally were a lot more flexible than the way most procedural languages use them now. Let’s try rewriting your example this way add = function(a,b) { + a b } Why is this better? Because + is a function, and add is an object, so you can then refactor the code to say this add = + Try doing that in C. As I see it the code for some programs has a high degree of symmetry (ie repeated patterns), and the best language is a notation the let’s you capture that the best. If you find yourself cutting, pasting and modifying things slightly each time, then your language is holding you back. Test-script code is the best example of this…particularly hardware tests. You have the same code copied and pasted dozens of hundreds of times. Thoreau once said that government is best that governs least. That language is best that makes you type the least.

kaba0 5y ago
> add = + > Try doing that in C. Function pointers. They are abused to no avail in C programs. It has the original callback hell, not JS. (And that is mainly because C has no proper way for abstractions)