Re:Functional Programming Is Not Popular Because It Is Weird
by bunderbunder on Sunday February 28, 2016 @01:09AM
(#11190058)
I think you're also trying to imply that it's inherently more difficult to write correct code in imperative style. TBH, I'm not convinced this is the case for most developers.
You can't just look at what fans of functional programming say. That's a self-selected group, so you're dealing with an observation that may be biased for any number of reasons.
The closest I've come to seeing an objective comparison was when I was TAing intro CS classes in undergrad, so I had the opportunity to see the same people have to use both. In that case, it seemed to me like folks had difficulty writing correct code regardless of paradigm. The difference was, with the imperative language you'd see a lot of mostly-working code with a few bugs. With the functional one you'd see a lot of failing to even get off the ground.
If we assume, for the sake of argument, that that's a reasonable characterization of what the typical person experiences when they try FP, is it really any surprise that it's not more popular? Nobody wants to work in a language that makes them feel frustrated and/or stupid. And you're not sweetening the deal at all when you insult them by implying that their code is inherently buggy because of the language they use.
You can't just look at what fans of functional programming say. That's a self-selected group, so you're dealing with an observation that may be biased for any number of reasons.
The closest I've come to seeing an objective comparison was when I was TAing intro CS classes in undergrad, so I had the opportunity to see the same people have to use both. In that case, it seemed to me like folks had difficulty writing correct code regardless of paradigm. The difference was, with the imperative language you'd see a lot of mostly-working code with a few bugs. With the functional one you'd see a lot of failing to even get off the ground.
If we assume, for the sake of argument, that that's a reasonable characterization of what the typical person experiences when they try FP, is it really any surprise that it's not more popular? Nobody wants to work in a language that makes them feel frustrated and/or stupid. And you're not sweetening the deal at all when you insult them by implying that their code is inherently buggy because of the language they use.