[1] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

functional programming
     
         fp a program in a functional language consists
        of a set of possibly recursive function definitions and
        an expression whose value is output as the program's result.
        functional languages are one kind of declarative language.
        they are mostly based on the typed lambda-calculus with
        constants.  there are no side-effects to expression
        evaluation so an expression, e.g. a function applied to
        certain arguments, will always evaluate to the same value if
        its evaluation terminates.  furthermore, an expression can
        always be replaced by its value without changing the overall
        result referential transparency.
     
        the order of evaluation of subexpressions is determined by the
        language's evaluation strategy.  in a strict
        call-by-value language this will specify that arguments
        are evaluated before applying a function whereas in a
        non-strict call-by-name language arguments are passed
        unevaluated.
     
        programs written in a functional language are generally
        compact and elegant, but have tended, until recently, to run
        slowly and require a lot of memory.
     
        examples of purely functional languages are clean, fp,
        haskell, hope, joy, lml, miranda, and sml.  many
        other languages such as lisp have a subset which is purely
        functional but also contain non-functional constructs.
     
        see also lazy evaluation, reduction.
     
        lecture notes
        ftp://ftp.cs.olemiss.edu/pub/tech-reports/umcis-1995-01.ps.
        or the same in dvi-format
        ftp://ftp.cs.olemiss.edu/pub/tech-reports/umcis-1995-01.dvi.
     
        faq
        http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/department/staff/gmh/faq.html.
     
        sel-hpc article archive
        http://www.lpac.ac.uk/sel-hpc/articles/.
     
        2003-03-25
     
     
see also:
recursive function declarative language typed lambda-calculus side-effects referential transparency 
evaluation strategy strict call-by-value call-by-name clean 
fp haskell hope joy lml 
miranda sml lisp lazy evaluation reduction 
lt;lecture notesgt; lt;in dvi-formatgt; lt;faqgt; lt;sel-hpc article archivegt; 

Programming >> P Words
Programming, definition of term: Programming
programming_pag1.html

Functional >> F Words
Functional, definition of term: Functional
functional_pag1.html

Programming Lan >> P Words
Programming Lan, definition of term: Programming Lan
programming+lan_pag1.html

Functional Dise >> F Words
Functional Dise, definition of term: Functional Dise
functional+dise_pag1.html

Functional Data >> F Words
Functional Data, definition of term: Functional Data
functional+data_pag1.html

Functional Lang >> F Words
Functional Lang, definition of term: Functional Lang
functional+lang_pag1.html