Ask Slashdot: Do You Like Functional Programming?

An anonymous reader writes:
Functional programming seems to be all the rage these days. Efforts are being made to highlight its use in Java, JavaScript, C# and elsewhere. Lots of claims are being made about it’s virtues that seem relatively easy to prove or disprove such as “Its use will reduce your debugging time.” Or “It will clarify your code.” My co-workers are resorting to arm-wrestling matches over this style choice. Half of my co-workers have drunk the Kool-Aid and are evangelizing its benefits. The other half are unconvinced of its virtues over Object Oriented Design patterns, etc.
What is your take on functional programming and related technologies (i.e. lambdas and streams)? Is it our salvation? Is it merely another useful design pattern? Or is it a technological dead-end?

Python creator Guido van Rossum has said most programmers aren’t used to functional languages, and when he answered Slashdot reader questions in 2013 said the only functional language he knew much about was Haskell, and “any language less popular than Haskell surely has very little practical value.” He even added “I also don’t think that the current crop of functional languages is ready for mainstream.”
Leave your own opinions in the comments. Do you like functional programming?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discuss&id=10523631&smallembed=1

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