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Simon Willison’s Weblog

In praise of functional programming

Via Joe Gregorio, Functional programming in Python Part 1 and Part 2. I’m reading Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs at the moment (available for free online, but I’ve got a library copy) and it has been getting me seriously interested in the functional programming paradigm. It’s also by far the most enlightening (in terms of “wow, that really makes sense”) computer science text book I’ve ever read. There’s something naturally elegant about the functional style, probably thanks to the encapsulation encouraged by the lack of global variables and the extensive use of recursion in functional code examples. It’s definitely true that exposure to a variety of programming styles encourages you to think about problems in different ways.

Posted 29th April 2003 at 11:57 pm

This is In praise of functional programming by Simon Willison, posted on 29th April 2003.

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3 comments

  1. SICP, too for me, dug into my psyche. It's an excellent read. I also read the Mertz articles you referenced and I really like the Xoltar toolkit which is mentioned prominently in the second article.

    Enforcing variable bindings is a nice feature of Xoltar, but what bothers me is the constant Binding object references in the "calling" code, e.g. let.x = 42, print let.x, &c. Any way to get rid of the let.s? Now that would be a great improvement---some hack to clean up the calling code.

    Anyway, thanks for your interesting site---I'm enjoying it!

    Rick Hanson - 23rd May 2003 17:06 - #

  2. i want to study computer scince (programming) in nigeriabut i need a text that will leaD me through and since i av saw this site i loved it and the text so i want a copy

    ridwan - 3rd January 2005 18:58 - #

  3. WOLD LIKE TO RECEIVE COMPUTER PROGRAMMING LESSONS SKILLS AND NOTES FRON YOUR INSTITUTION

    PETER OMASET ETYANG - 6th October 2005 14:53 - #

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