functional programming

1 definition found

functional programming - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  functional programming
  
     <programming> (FP) A program in a functional language consists
     of a set of (possibly recursive) function definitions and
     an expression whose value is output as the program's result.
     Functional languages are one kind of declarative language.
     They are mostly based on the typed lambda-calculus with
     constants.  There are no side-effects to expression
     evaluation so an expression, e.g. a function applied to
     certain arguments, will always evaluate to the same value (if
     its evaluation terminates).  Furthermore, an expression can
     always be replaced by its value without changing the overall
     result (referential transparency).
  
     The order of evaluation of subexpressions is determined by the
     language's evaluation strategy.  In a strict
     (call-by-value) language this will specify that arguments
     are evaluated before applying a function whereas in a
     non-strict (call-by-name) language arguments are passed
     unevaluated.
  
     Programs written in a functional language are generally
     compact and elegant, but have tended, until recently, to run
     slowly and require a lot of memory.
  
     Examples of purely functional languages are Clean, FP,
     Haskell, Hope, Joy, LML, Miranda, and SML.  Many
     other languages such as Lisp have a subset which is purely
     functional but also contain non-functional constructs.
  
     See also lazy evaluation, reduction.
  
     Lecture notes (ftp://ftp.cs.olemiss.edu/pub/tech-reports/umcis-1995-01.ps)
     .
     or the same in dvi-format (ftp://ftp.cs.olemiss.edu/pub/tech-reports/umcis-1995-01.dvi)
     .
  
     FAQ (http://cs.nott.ac.uk/Department/Staff/gmh/faq.html)
     .
  
     SEL-HPC Article Archive (http://lpac.ac.uk/SEL-HPC/Articles/)
     .
  
     (2003-03-25)