Functional programming definition and origin

Programming Paradigm

• A programming paradigm is a paradigmatic style of programming (compare with a methodology, which is a paradigmatic style of doing software engineering).
• A programming paradigm provides (and determines) the view that the programmer has of the execution of the program.
• For instance, in object-oriented programming, programmers can think of a program as a collection of interacting objects, while in functional programming a program can be thought of as a combination of stateless function evaluations.

Functional Programming Paradigm

• Functional programming is a programming paradigm that conceives computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids state and mutable data.
• Functional programming emphasizes the application of functions, in contrast with imperative programming, which emphasizes changes in state and the execution of sequential commands.
• Functional programming is a style of programming which consists of functions applied to arguments, for example the elements of a list, and to other functions.

Origin of functional Programming

• Lambda calculus,
  • Invented by Alonzo Church in the 1930s
  • provides a theoretical framework for describing functions and their evaluation.
  • Though it is a mathematical abstraction rather than a programming language, lambda calculus forms the basis of almost all functional programming languages today.
• Combinatory logic
  • This is an equivalent theoretical foundation, developed by Moses Schönfinkel and Haskell Curry.
  • It was originally developed to achieve a larger goal: a clearer approach to the foundations of mathematics.
  • Combinatory logic, which is commonly perceived as more abstract than lambda calculus, preceded lambda-calculus in invention.
• Information Processing Language (IPL)
  • The first computer-based functional programming language
  • Developed by Newell, Shaw, and Simon at RAND Corporation for the JOHNNIAC computer in the mid-1950s.
• LISP
  • An early functional-flavored programming language
  • Developed by John McCarthy while at MIT for the IBM 700/7000 series scientific computers in the late 1950s.
  • LISP introduced many of the features now found in modern functional programming languages, though LISP is technically a multi-paradigm language.
  • Scheme and Dylan were later attempts to simplify and improve LISP.
• APL programming language
  • Kenneth E. Iverson developed in the early 1960s
  • Described in his 1962 book “A Programming Language.”
  • APL was the primary influence on John Backus‘s FP programming language (1977)
• J programming language
  • In the early 1990s, Iverson and Roger Hui created
  • A successor to APL.
• K programming language
  • In the mid 1990s
  • Created by  Arthur Whitney, who had previously worked with Iverson
  • used commercially in financial industries.
• ML programming language
  • In the 1970s
  • was created by Robin Milner at the University of Edinburgh
• Miranda
  • David Turner developed the language at the University of Kent.
• ML eventually developed into several dialects, the most common of which are now Objective Caml and Standard ML.
• The Haskell programming language was released in the late 1980s in an attempt to gather together many ideas in functional programming research.

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