Re:N-queen puzzle in 4 lines of Scala
by willtim on Sunday April 10, 2016 @05:47PM
(#11468330)
There is no well defined definition of functional programming. Since almost every mainstream imperative language supports higher-order functions, I would suggest that criteria is inadequate. A better definition is programming without side-effects.
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Re:N-queen puzzle in 4 lines of Scala
by rwjwjuwjudf on Sunday April 10, 2016 @05:57PM
(#11468369)
Output is a side effect.
Not in Haskell and other pure languages. Pure functional programming is used to construct larger programs from smaller ones, which only when finally executed by the runtime produce output.
Re:N-queen puzzle in 4 lines of Scala
by rwjwjuwjudf on Sunday April 10, 2016 @06:16PM
(#11468438)
Are there any programs that produce output before they are executed?
It is not easy describing pure functional programming in two sentences. I encourage you to read up on it yourself. Again, IO is not a side-effect in pure languages such as Haskell. And again, the absence of side-effects best defines functional programming, not any particular feature, which imperative languages can and do steal.