The Functional Approach to Programming (Paperback)

~ (Author), Michel Mauny (Author), K. Callaway (Translator) "Functional programming is a style that use the definition and application of functions as essential concepts..." (more)
Key Phrases: orelse empty, type btree, list hom, Basic Principles, Dec Right, Representing Sets (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a valuable contribution to programming practice...Cousineau and Mauny convincingly demonstrate the elegance and conciseness of the functional approach." Computing Reviews

Product Description

A programming course should concentrate on a program's logical structure and design rather than on simply writing code. The functional approach to programming achieves this aim because logical concepts are evident and programs are transparent, and so can be written quickly and cleanly. In this book, the authors emphasize the notions of function and relate programming to familiar concepts from mathematics and logic. They introduce functional programming via examples but also explain what programs compute and how to reason about them. They show how the ideas can be implemented in the Caml language, a dialect of the ML family, and give examples of how complex programs from a variety of areas (such as arithmetic, tree algorithms, graph algorithms, text parsing and geometry) can be developed in close agreement with their specifications. Many exercises and examples are included throughout the book; solutions are also available. An appendix gives all the code used in the book in Standard ML.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 460 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; English Ed edition (October 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521576814
• ISBN-13: 978-0521576819
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #66,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book on Functional Programming, June 15, 2000

By	Brent Fulgham (Ventura, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Functional programming requires a much different mindset than standard "procedural" languages such as C, Perl, Python, and others. This book does an excellent job of teaching the reader about these concepts.

The language of choice (CAML) used in this book requires some effort to learn. Certain elements of its syntax are non-obvious, and the internal type checking can be irritating until you learn that the rigorous checks result in safer programs. (An interesting side-note is that OCaml, compiled to native code, is in most cases very nearly identical in speed to straight C. Visit http://caml.inria.fr for details).

This is not an easy book. I found myself flipping to prior chapters to reread sections that I thought I understood on the first pass, but had not. This is no fault of the author, but rather the of the unfamiliar nature of the territory covered.

This book covers a lot of ground. As the other reviewer indicates, if you liked SICP, you will like this book. It covers a lot of the same ground, and provides an excellent grounding in various data structures and so forth.

One final note. Although the book is a translation from French, I found the english to be perfect. There were no slips into incorrect syntax or confusing idioms. My hat's off to the editor/translator.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful introduction to (functional) programming, February 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Functional Approach to Programming (Hardcover)

I read the french edition of that book and found it to be one of the best book about (functional) programming I know. The authors first quickly introduce the CAML language (an ML variant) and then proceed with real-world examples. The reader will for example learn how to manipulate arbitrary-precision numbers, how to compile regular expressions or how to solve some common games. If you've read and liked Abelson and Sussman's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", you'll like that book too. I strongly recommend it to anybody interested in CAML or SML, or in functional programming.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good on examples of the functional approach to algorithms, October 8, 2002

By	Dennis Decker Jensen "dennisdjensen" (Horsens, Jylland Denmark) - See all my reviews

I have not much to add to the other two reviews.

I've read "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (SICP), and like many others found it one among the best if not *the best* computerbook I've ever read. I think that "The Functional Approach to Programming" differs a lot from SICP. This is not to say, that it's bad, rather that I think it's very different from SICP. Its focus is much more on semantics (ML of course, not Scheme), correctness (in the scientific sense) and algorithms.

It offers plenty on the functional approach to implementing algorithms like trees and sets. The semantics are elaborated in a clear and concise style, that I've been able to track even though I have no degree in computer science at all (I'm just an auto didact from "the street").

For someone not familiar with functional programming like me, I find this very good. I have a background in C, Java, C++ moving toward more highlevel languages like Scheme, Lisp, Ruby, SmallTalk and Python in the latter years.

It is very succinct with plenty of code examples like SICP. The code doesn't fill too much, since the functional style is a lot shorter for solving complex problems than the equavalent imperative program examples I've seen in C++ and Java. The focus is on the scientific correct thing to do, rather than a more ad hoc focus on "best practices" giving way to a more firm ground for choosing style and algorithms to solve a particular problem. The "best practices" are there of course, but in a transparent way, like small paradigms of code (somewhat like Peter Norvig's "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming - Case Studies in Common Lisp").

Just to make it clear: I don't think it's fair to compare it with SICP, although their subjects overlap somewhat. Its vocabulary differs significantly from both SICP and the terminology used in OO and Design Patterns land. This is bad in the sense in makes it unnecessary hard to learn the basics.

However, if you haven't dealt with functional programming before, you're of course going to encounter the usual paradigm shifting problems. I now find my self thinking a whole new and rather refreshing way about programs. It does pay off, even though it certainly helped that I had read SICP and a lot of articles on the subject at first.

Even if I'm never going to use functional programming in my professional life, I've now got a better grasp of algorithms -- what, when and how to use them. It's simply easier to reason about them using the functional approach.

By the way: The english translation *is* perfect.

Should you read it? I think you should, but prepare yourself to use some time to understand new concepts if you're not familiar with the nomenclature of the functional programming community. Even though it's not easy, I still think it pays off.