Introduction to Functional Programming
Got.clj meetup
Tonight’s Got.clj session was an introduction to functional programming. I built up the vocabulary step by step: values, expressions, evaluation, side effects, and why Clojure and Haskell only have expressions while Python also has statements. Each idea comes with examples side by side in Python, Clojure and Haskell.
What we went through:
- functions, arity, and routines versus functions
- pure functions, immutability and referential transparency
- higher-order functions, partial application and currying
- map, filter, reduce, list comprehensions, recursion, pattern matching and composition
- types as sets of values, and ad hoc, subtyping and parametric polymorphism
twice = (*) 2
thrice = (*) 3
sixtimes = twice . thrice