Functional fun
Marcia Linn1990, SIGCSE bulletin
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Abstract
Various arguments have been made for the use of functional programming, This paper presents some additional arguments for teaching the discipline of functional programming in an introductory programming course. In particular, functional programming . focuses students on the goal of solving the problem at hand rather than distracting them with a multitude of extraneous details; . encourages the formation of templates, i.e. stereotypical chunks of programming knowledge; . provides computer experiences that reinforce and deepen students' understanding of the abstract concept of function; . leads to code that is concise and elegant. We illustrate these points and others with some of our favorite functional programming examples. Examples are given in LISP and Pascal.
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