Functional Programming

[beno]

At 02:27 PM 12/23/2002 +0100, you wrote:
>beno wrote:
>>Does anyone know of good sources of info for programming using the 
>>principles of functional programming in Python? Or, to what languages is 
>>Haskell similar? Any other advice on the subject equally welcomed!
>
>You could ask Google:
>
>http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-prog.html
>
>I think most examples from your book would translate literally to Python.

You're right, of course. But I was talking for programming in general.

>A number of mechanisms that people often associate with functional 
>programming are not directly available in Python:
>
>- lazy evaluation (arguments are not evaluated if they don't contribute
>   to the result). There is no clean way to emulate it in a language that
>   does not have it. In some cases, transforming expressions to
>   statements (in particular, if-statements) helps. In some cases,
>   generators can be used instead.

What about Ty Sarna's and Philip Eby's PEAK?
http://www.telecommunity.com/PEAK/
They use lazy evaluation, and it's all written in Python.

>- tail recursion: while it is available in most languages, it is often
>   not eliminated, but can cause stack overflows. You either need to
>   rewrite it into a while-loop, or eliminate it from the algorithm
>   altogether (e.g. by using map).
>
>- Currying (creating a function from another function by passing some
>   arguments): This is not directly available in Python; you can often
>   emulate it with lambda expressions.
>
>http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-prog3.html
>
>   gives nicer-to-write syntax for that.

Thank you!
beno