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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