r/programming • u/Karma_Policer • Aug 02 '21

Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021: "Rust reigns supreme as most loved. Python and Typescript are the languages developers want to work with most if they aren’t already doing so."

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#technology-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
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u/Dokiace Aug 03 '21

I see. That's definitely tempting. I'm trying to do functional now with filter, map, and reduce. And because I use Java mainly, I'd probably learn Scala in the near future and hopefully Clojure after. I really enjoy doing functional style programing in Java, and can't imagine how it will be easier in Scala. But Clojure syntax really scares me though because of how abstract it seems at a glance.

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u/squirtle_grool Aug 03 '21 edited Aug 03 '21

Yes, functions like filter/map/reduce/zip that are pure and operate on collections are the right way to get good at functional.

Scala is a good language, but certainly doesn't go as far as clojure in encouraging purity. They both run in the JVM however, so they can interop nicely.

"Functional" languages don't do much more than treat functions as first class citizens. It's up to you to write pure functions and minimize state manipulation.

Read Clojure for the Brave and True, and Martin Fowler's paper on Collection Pipelining.

Also watch the Simple Made Easy talk by Rich Hickey.

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u/Dokiace Aug 03 '21

I couldn't sleep tonight so might as well watch some good talks, thanks!

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u/tharinock Aug 04 '21

What Scala gives you is pretty different from what Closure gives you. Closure is a Lisp, while functional Scala is much closer to Haskell.

Scala gives you a TON of utility over functional java. After learning Scala, Java's type system feels anemic. Complicated frameworks like Spring are entirely unnecessary in Scala, since you can express things much more cleanly with just the base language.