
Functional Programming: Is It Worth It? - gamache
http://www.slideshare.net/AndrewRollins1/functional-programming-is-it-worth-it
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thomasrossi
Most of the interesting work I do is in C, so probably not the very top
commenter on this, but I have some business in Java. I've seen some functional
programming and I agree mostly on the point: "isolating side effects". All the
other advantages are yet not very clear to me:/

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dozzie
Add pattern matching to the list. You combine function call, unpacking the
result, and branching based on its structure and/or value in a single
statement, without otherwise unnecessary intermediate variables.

Then add working with single-linked lists and pervasive recursion, which
somehow gives much higher level code and the right amount of friction to cause
functions to be shorter.

Callbacks being natural and obvious is a cherry on the cake (functions as
first-class objects is not that big of a deal, but it still helps a lot in
overall landscape).

It's not a single killer-feature of functional programming that make this
paradigm so loved by its practitioners, it's all the little things combined.

