Good introduction to functional programming with Python?

[Alex Martelli]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.977553967.26987.python-list at python.org...
    [snip]
We agree on far too much, and dwelling on agreements ain't no
fun, so, let's pick on a difference:

> If it is, then if FP is "about" anything, it's about the art of using
> higher-order functions, and I believe mere mortals *need* a strong static
> typing system to keep those straight.  Maps returning maps returning maps
> ... can get hard to follow real fast.

Erlang designers and practitioners seem to disagree: and Erlang is arguably
the FP around which most $$$ turn in today's real-world, what with its use
in Ericsson and Bluetail's acquisition by a Nortel subsidiary.  I have no
real
experience with it, and thus no solid basis on which to judge it, but,
sordid
materialist that I am, I _am_ impressed when hundreds of megabucks are
in play:-).  And Erlang relies on strong dynamic (aka latent) typing, and an
emphasis on concurrency in an FP setting, to (allegedly) reach good levels
of reliability, performance, ease of learning, programmer productivity.

Static typing has its place, but so, it appears, does latent typing, even in
FP.


> > or Unixoid.  (Not that Haskell's and Erlang's implementations
> > are any less free, cross-platform, and good-quality, but, IMHO,
> > Rice's Scheme has characteristics that make it even better).
>
> A caution that this depends on how powerful his computer is:  DrScheme is
> too much a resource hog for a satisfying experience on older Windows boxes
> (voice of experience).  This is a bit ironic, since Scheme is ported at
> least as often as Python to tiny platforms.  You pay through the nose for
> "all the trimmings" that come with DrScheme.  Worth it if you can afford
it!

Thanks for the warning!  The oldest machine on which I had tried Rice
Scheme's had a Pentium-133 and 32M RAM, and they seemed to run fine
there -- with older boxes yet, a smaller implementation is no doubt better!


Alex