Re: Functional programming?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg91953] Re: Functional programming?
- From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:39:13 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
- References: <gag2ra$3f9$1@smc.vnet.net>
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"? > > --- especially as this concept might relate to building programs to do > calculations involving multi-stage real-world engineering or technical > problems > > --- and especially as it might relate to programs that are going to be > developed in an evolutionary process and that in the end, rather than > being built into some long-term library, are maybe only going to be run > or executed a few times before the person involved (e.g., an engineer, > or scientist, or other real-world individual, not a "programmer") moves > on to some other totally different task or assignment. Why asking to reinvent the wheel when Google, Wikipedia, several Usenet newsgroups dedicated to functional programming and languages (and their associated FAQ) can easily answer all these questions? But you have already done that, don't you? So I feel you want to go beyond the mundane stuff; look no further! For the mathematical inclined mind, I would strongly recommend studying _The Haskell Road to Logic, Maths and Programming_ (Texts in Computing S.) by Kees Doets and Jan van Eijck, College Publications (May 7, 2004) [ISBN-13: 978-0954300692]. Admittedly, the book is thicker than a mere tutorial, yet much more slim than The Mathematica Book, 5th Ed., and it has such breadth and depth... All the cutting-edge concepts and superior technics you are going to master will easily translate to Mathematica and dramatically improve your user experience... Regards, -- Jean-Marc