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Ask Slashdot: Do You Like Functional Programming? (slashdot.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Functional programming seems to be all the rage these days. Efforts are being made to highlight its use in Java, JavaScript, C# and elsewhere. Lots of claims are being made about it's virtues that seem relatively easy to prove or disprove such as "Its use will reduce your debugging time." Or "It will clarify your code." My co-workers are resorting to arm-wrestling matches over this style choice. Half of my co-workers have drunk the Kool-Aid and are evangelizing its benefits. The other half are unconvinced of its virtues over Object Oriented Design patterns, etc.

What is your take on functional programming and related technologies (i.e. lambdas and streams)? Is it our salvation? Is it merely another useful design pattern? Or is it a technological dead-end?

Python creator Guido van Rossum has said most programmers aren't used to functional languages, and when he answered Slashdot reader questions in 2013 said the only functional language he knew much about was Haskell, and "any language less popular than Haskell surely has very little practical value." He even added "I also don't think that the current crop of functional languages is ready for mainstream."

Leave your own opinions in the comments. Do you like functional programming?

4 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Dysfunctional programming by FrankHaynes · · Score: 5, Funny

    seem to be the prevalent choice on the web these days.

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    slashdot: A failed experiment.
  2. Functional Programming Considered Harmful by doom · · Score: 4, Funny

    I tried a websearch the other day on "functional programming considered harmful" and found remarkably few hits. If anyone is so inspired, there's an opportunity there to gain some fame while earning the emnity of the hordes of javascript kids and half of the Computer Science digirati.

  3. Re:It has its uses by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Religious wars over programming techniques and methodologies are for pedantic fools.

    Us Pastafarians would disagree! We prefer to write Spaghetti Code :D

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    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  4. Re:It depends on the use by vtcodger · · Score: 2, Funny

    "The world's most popular programming language (Excel) is functional"

    Is that intended to be an argument in FAVOR of FP?

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    You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey