I am probably making a similar point to "gracenotes" here, but as I see it the functions in functional programming are simply a tool that can be used in order t

I am probably making a similar point to "gracenotes" here, but as I see it the functions in functional programming are simply a tool that can be used in order to achieve side effect free programming. They are not what really defines functional programming as a concept, even though they share the root name "function".