Re: Beginning functional programming

[Dustin Getz <dustin.getz@gmail.com>]

check out the book Seven Languages in Seven Weeks. there are chapters on Scala, Clojure and Haskell. I loved the book, it gets you coding which forces you to interact with the language's community and libraries, you'll have a great feel for which language is the one that resonates best with you.

http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X

On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 2:39 PM, Aaron Kuehler <aaronkuehler@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all - 3rd year student at West Chester University here

 Take Dr. Wyatt's "Programming Languages" course. While not strictly a FP course, you will learn about the concepts of functional programming through exploration of Common Lisp and ML. This class was my absolute favorite. Having some familiarity with WCU's Java-centric curriculum, prepare to have your mind blown.

More than learning a new language to understand FP, I would recommend reading the papers on which the concept has been championed. One of my favorites is John Backus' 1978 ACM paper "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?..." http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~crary/819-f09/Backus78.pdf

Like Kyle, I'm partial to LISP-y languages, so +1 for Clojure, or just plain old Common Lisp or Scheme. You'll have to learn a bit of Common Lisp anyway at some point in your undergrad career to meet the course requirements at WCU.

Cheers,

--
Aaron Kuehler
Aaron.Kuehler@gmail.com