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Re:What programming languages should I learn and why? by gibsonf1 on Saturday May 19, 2007 @07:58PM (#23307)
"purely functional Lisp type languages" I think Common Lisp actually has one of the most powerful Object Systems: CLOS
Re:What programming languages should I learn and why? by rms on Saturday May 19, 2007 @08:05PM (#23310)
Sorry, I meant languages that actually allow for functional programming, not languages that are exclusively that way.
Re:What programming languages should I learn and why? by euccastro on Monday May 21, 2007 @11:08PM (#23778)
Just to nitpick, any language that allows functions 'allows' functional programming to some extent. More seriously, any language with higher order functions, lexical scoping, and closures can be considered appropriate for functional programming.

You probably meant languages that are biased primarily towards functional programming, as opposed to others where FP is not the dominant paradigm. You have to specify that much if you are going to include the Lisps but leave Python out.

Re:What programming languages should I learn and why? by BrandonM on Sunday May 20, 2007 @07:21PM (#23473)
Lisp is not at all exclusively functional. The best Lisp is, but you can easily write iterative code in Lisp as well. It's just that most Lisp programmers don't because they realize that the functional paradigm is usually superior in terms of creating clean, simple code that is easy to understand later.