Re: Functional programming?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg91959] Re: Functional programming?
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:40:22 -0400 (EDT)
On 9/13/08 at 5:57 AM, siegman at stanford.edu (AES) wrote: >I suggest it might be instructive if some of the functional >programming proponents on this group could provide us DO-looping old >timers with a brief summary or tutorial as to what is really meant >by, or involved in, "functional programming"? I wouldn't know where to start such a tutorial. Why don't the various tutorials in the online help address your need here? And what about the many books already written on programming in Mathematica? When I first started using Mathematica, like many others I had come with some background in procedural languages C, C++ and FORTRAN. And my initial programming in Mathematica made use of For loops etc. I moved to functional programming after reading a couple of Maeder's books and other books on Mathematica. I gained more familiarity with this style of programming by simply using it. Also, I made a sure to understand code others had written using functional programming worked by looking up the syntax of any unfamiliar command. Using Mathematica on a daily basis in this fashion, I eventually became more comfortable with the functional style. And now, I would have to look up the syntax for For and similar constructs before using them. I simply do not know any better way to learn any programming language other than simply using it to solve real problems. Yes, this takes time. But mastery of anything takes time. There simply are no shortcuts.