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Ask HN: Which functional programming language to get started with

by v512 on 12/5/14, 6:13 PM with 2 comments

Like to learn any functional programming language but having hard time choosing one, Looking for a language which is easier to grasp the fundamentals of functional programming.

  • by smt88 on 12/5/14, 6:28 PM

    I actually think that, compared to OOP, FP has a lot more theory and the language matters less because the language constructs are simpler. I could see someone saying "don't learn OOP by writing JavaScript", but for FP, there are many languages that'll work for you.

    Scala is probably a great target language, but I haven't seen tutorials for Scala for beginners. It's a (relatively) complicated language, and its adoption seems to be concentrated among people who are already experienced developers.

    All that said, I'd suggest Haskell. It's purely functional, and it actually forces certain functional practices (e.g. immutable identifiers).

    I can't honestly tell you a good place to start because I don't know how much formal CS education you have, but see if this is your speed: http://learnyouahaskell.com

    There's also Real World Haskell, a tree book that is now a free e-book: http://book.realworldhaskell.org/read/ (please excuse my rhymes).

  • by darthVapor on 12/5/14, 6:15 PM

    I would say Scala if you have any background in java. Scala isn't strict so if you're working on a time sensitive project you can still use OO to get the job done in time. Other than that Common Lisp might be a good starting point.