Re:How to stop functional programming
by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @03:39PM
(#11162126)
In the real world, I've got a team that, while all of them could learn to read that one line of code, I don't think any of them can read it now.
Sure, they could be taught. But they're busy being taught other things - Android, say, or the latest JS framework. So there's an opportunity cost to teaching them - it takes away time and attention from teaching them other things, things that may move us closer to our business goals. So in practice, yes we can teach them, and no we won't.
And now that one line of code can decrease clarity for the team.
Get a decent static analysis tool for their IDE, that points out places where they can replace a gommy, ugly loop with a higher-order function.
In my opinion and experience, Resharper is the easiest way to learn LINQ, before you even start looking at all the other dumb, inconsistent and error-prone stuff that people will do because it compiles, blissfully unaware of all the foot-guns it contains.
If you have a coworker who doesn't understand it, pair them with someone more senior until they get up to speed. If they are simply cognitively incapable of understanding the concept of mapping a function, in my opinion they are not capable of becoming a good developer.
Yes, there are times when reducing lines of code reduces clarity. But in my experience they are rare and exceptional. Far more real world code lacks clarity due to verbosity than from being overly terse.