Book Image

JavaScript : Functional Programming for JavaScript Developers

By : Ved Antani, Simon Timms, Dan Mantyla
Book Image

JavaScript : Functional Programming for JavaScript Developers

By: Ved Antani, Simon Timms, Dan Mantyla

Overview of this book

JavaScript is a high-level, dynamic, untyped, lightweight, and interpreted programming language and functional programming is a style that emphasizes and enables smarter code that minimizes complexity and increases modularity. It's a way of writing cleaner code through clever ways of mutating, combining, and using functions. And JavaScript provides an excellent medium for this approach. By learning how to expose JavaScript's true identity as a functional language, we can implement web apps that are more powerful, easier to maintain and more reliable. The java script: Functional Programming for JavaScript Developers course will take you on a journey to show how functional programming when combined with other techniques makes JavaScript programming more efficient. The first module Mastering JavaScript, stress on practical aspects of Javascript development like—Functions and Closures, Runtime debugging techniques, project layout, events and DOM processing, build tools, Object-oriented patterns, isomorphism—everything that a modern Javascript project would need. The second module, Mastering JavaScript Design Patterns - Second Edition, will explore how design patterns can help you improve and organize your JavaScript code. You’ll get to grips with creational, structural, and behavioral patterns as you discover how to put them to work in different scenarios. This updated edition will also delve into reactive design patterns and microservices as they are a growing phenomenon in the world of web development. It will also show you some advanced patterns, including dependency injection and live post processing. The third module, Functional Programming in JavaScript, will help you to write real-world applications by utilizing a wide range of functional techniques and styles. It explores the core concepts of functional programming common to all functional languages, with examples of their use in JavaScript.
Table of Contents (6 chapters)

Chapter 5. Category Theory

Thomas Watson was famously quoted as saying, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers". That was in 1948. Back then, everybody knew that computers would only be used for two things: math and engineering. Not even the biggest minds in tech could predict that, one day, computers would be able to translate Spanish to English, or simulate entire weather systems. At the time, the fastest machine was IBM's SSEC, clocking in at 50 multiplications per second, the display terminal wasn't due until 15 years later and multiple-processing meant multiple user terminals sharing a single processor. The transistor changed everything, but tech's visionaries still missed the mark. Ken Olson made another famously foolish prediction when, in 1977, he said "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home".

It seams obvious to us now that computers are not just for scientists and engineers, but that's hindsight...