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(Mostly) Functional Design?
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Date: | 2005-07-18 (14:23) |
From: | alphablock <alphablock@w...> |
Subject: | Re: [Caml-list] (Mostly) Functional Design? |
May be there are many less FP solutions than OOP solutions just because there are many less FP problems than OOP problems. Or may be i am plain naive, who knows... - damien ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Morelli" <morelli@cs.utah.edu> To: "Kyle Consalus" <consalus@gmail.com> Cc: <caml-list@yquem.inria.fr> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2005 9:59 AM Subject: Re: [Caml-list] (Mostly) Functional Design? > I've been lurking on this list for several years. This seems as good a > time as any to delurk and jump on a soap box. > > I think you've put your finger on one of the main reasons functional > languages have failed to attract significant use beyond a few niche > areas. > > I contend: > 1. The FP community tends to emphasize low level issues rather than > the larger scale issues that concern most programmers. It is also > inept at practical documentation and advocacy. > 2. There isn't much of a theory of large scale functional design. > At least, there is no consensus. > 3. Point 2. is not the consequence of point 1.; it's not simply a > matter of communication, but an instrinsic void in the FP paradigm. > The FP paradigm is intrinsically poorly adapted to the kind of large > scale design concepts that concern most programmers. Object oriented > programming is a much better match, not because of a conspiracy of > commercial giants in the software tool business, but because of > intrinsic technical reasons. Functional programming is a niche > technology ideally suited to simple domains like language tools and > formal methods. It does not have much to say about complicated > systems. > > > Kyle Consalus wrote: > > There are a wealth of resources related to object oriented design techniques > > (which can certainly be applied to OCaml), but I've been pretty much unable > > to find any good resources on large scale design of functional programs. > > I realize that this is the sort of thing that develops over time with > > experience. > > Just the same, there is (most likely) a lot to learn and consider, and a > > resource would be helpful. My recent uses of OCaml for fairly small projects > > have been effective, but a lot of things were cumbersome in the design > > and I suspect that I may be thinking about it wrong. > > So, could anyone suggest a good resource or perhaps weigh > > in on their thoughts on the topic? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Kyle > > _______________________________________________ > Caml-list mailing list. Subscription management: > http://yquem.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/caml-list > Archives: http://caml.inria.fr > Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners > Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs >