Functional programming lets you create your own language, specialized for your project

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Interesting

Simplicity and Abstractness
Ending up with a language tailored for the problem is not the only nice feature of functional programming. Compared to object-oriented, functional code tends to be a lot more abstract. There are no intricate nets of heavy stateful objects that very often can’t talk to each other without adaptation and need a lot of care to weave together.

Data structures are very simple (if not minimalistic), what makes them easy to use with more functions. They also are immutable, so there is no risk of unexpected side effects. On the other hand, because of simplicity of data structures functions turn out to be much more abstract and generic, and hence applicable in broader context. Add closures and higher-order functions and get a very powerful engine with unlimited applications. Think how much you can do with map alone – and why.

Another way to look at code organization is layers or levels of abstraction. In object-oriented, it usually means that a bottom layer consists of objects which provide some functionality to the higher level. Functional programming takes it one step further: “[each layer acts] as a sort of programming language for the one above.” And if there is a need for distinction to layers, it’s only because of levels of abstraction. Much rarelier because of incompatibility and never because of handcuffing encapsulation.

Maintainability and Code Organization
We all know that in object-oriented programming most of the time you should start with the purpose at hand and go for a very concrete, specialized design. “Use before reuse” is the phrase term here. Then, when you need more flexibility you decompose and make the code more abstract. Sometimes it can be a difficult, time-consuming and bug-inducing effort. It’s not the case with functional programming. “Working bottom-up is also the best way to get reusable software. The essence of writing reusable software is to separate the general from the specific, and bottom-up programming inherently creates such a separation.”

Compared to OO, refactoring of functional code is trivial. There is no state, dependencies or interactions to worry about. No way to induce unexpected side effects. Each function is a simple construct with well-defined outcome given the direct input. Thanks to that, it’s also much easier to test (and cover with automated test suites).

Post external references

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    http://squirrel.pl/blog/2011/03/14/two-worlds-learning-functional-thinking-after-oo/
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