Book Image

Mastering Functional Programming

Book Image

Mastering Functional Programming

Overview of this book

Functional programming is a paradigm specifically designed to deal with the complexity of software development in large projects. It helps developers to keep track of the interdependencies in the code base and changes in its state in runtime. Mastering Functional Programming provides detailed coverage of how to apply the right abstractions to reduce code complexity, so that it is easy to read and understand. Complete with explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and self-assessment questions, the book begins by covering the basics such as what lambdas are and how to write declarative code with the help of functions. It then moves on to concepts such as pure functions and type classes, the problems they aim to solve, and how to use them in real-world scenarios. You’ll also explore some of the more advanced patterns in the world of functional programming such as monad transformers and Tagless Final. In the concluding chapters, you’ll be introduced to the actor model, which you can implement in modern functional languages, and delve into parallel programming. By the end of the book, you will be able to apply the concepts of functional programming and object-oriented programming (OOP)in order to build robust applications.

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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
The Declarative Programming Style
The Declarative Programming Style
Technical requirements
Principles of declarative programming
Declarative versus imperative collections
Declarative programming in other languages
Summary
Questions
2
Functions and Lambdas
Functions and Lambdas
Functions as behavior
Functions in functional programming
Higher-order functions
Understanding lambda functions
The concept of functions in different programming languages
Summary
Questions
3
Functional Data Structures
Functional Data Structures
Collections framework
Algebraic approach
Effect types
Data structures in different programming languages
Summary
Questions
Further reading
4
The Problem of Side Effects
The Problem of Side Effects
Side effects
Mutable states
Pure functions
Generally encountered side effects
But how do we get rid of the side effects?
The pure functional paradigm in different languages
Summary
Questions
5
Effect Types - Abstracting Away Side Effects
Effect Types - Abstracting Away Side Effects
Turning effects into data
The sequential combination of effects with Monads
Summary
Questions
6
Effect Types in Practice
Effect Types in Practice
Future
Either
Reader
Summary
Questions
7
The Idea of the Type Classes
The Idea of the Type Classes
Rich Wrapper pattern
The Type Class pattern
Interpretation of the Type Class pattern
Type classes in different languages
Summary
Questions
8
Basic Type Classes and Their Usage
Basic Type Classes and Their Usage
A motivation for organizing type classes into systems and libraries
The Cats library for purely functional programming
Type classes
Summary
Questions
9
Libraries for Pure Functional Programming
Libraries for Pure Functional Programming
Cats effect
Server-side programming
Summary
Questions
10
Patterns of Advanced Functional Programming
Patterns of Advanced Functional Programming
Monad Transformers
Tagless Final
Type-level programming
Summary
Questions
11
Introduction to the Actor Model
Introduction to the Actor Model
Overview of parallelism solutions
Traditional model synchronization on monitors
The actor model as a replacement for the traditional model
Summary
Questions
12
The Actor Model in Practice
The Actor Model in Practice
Akka overview
Defining, creating, and messaging actors
Working with actor systems
Summary
Questions
13
Use Case - A Parallel Web Crawler
Use Case - A Parallel Web Crawler
Problem statement
Sequential solution
A parallel solution with Akka
Summary
14
Introduction to Scala
Introduction to Scala
Motivation for using Scala
Scala infrastructure
Variables and functions
Control structures
Inheritance model
Summary
15
Assessments
Assessments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
16
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Introduction to the Actor Model

In the previous chapter, we the discussed patterns and techniques of advanced functional programming in modern programming languages. However, you may have noticed that we were always dealing with cases of sequential programming. The closest that we have ever gotten to real parallelism was when we discussed the Applicative type class.

In this chapter, we will go deeper into the topic of modern functional solutions for parallelism. The following are the topics that we will be covering in this chapter:

  • Overview of parallelism solutions
  • Traditional model synchronization on monitors
  • The actor model as a replacement for the traditional model
Previous Section
End of Section 1
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