June 2014
Intermediate to advanced
180 pages
4h 21m
English
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Chapter 5. Evolve
Functional programming languages approach code reuse differently from object-oriented languages. Object-oriented languages tend to have many data structures with many operations, whereas functional languages exhibit few data structures with many operations. Object-oriented languages encourage you to create class-specific methods, and you can capture recurring patterns for later reuse. Functional languages help you achieve reuse by encouraging the application of common transformations to data structures, with higher-order functions to customize the operation for specific instances.
In this chapter, I cover various ways that languages have evolved solutions to particular recurring problems in software. I discuss the attitudinal change in functional programming with respect to custom data structures; talk about the malleability of languages and solutions; and cover dispatch options, operator overloading, and functional data structures.
Few Data Structures, Many Operations
It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than 10 functions on 10 data structures.
— Alan Perlis
In object-oriented imperative programming languages, the units of reuse are classes and the messages they communicate with, typically captured in a class diagram. The seminal work in that space, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley, 1994), includes at least one class diagram with each pattern. In the OOP world, developers are encouraged to create ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.