Functional Programming Guide to Functional Programming

Welcome to the Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming! This book will teach you the fundamentals of functional programming in JavaScript.

What You'll Learn

• Pure Functions: Write predictable, testable code
• Composition: Build complex programs from simple functions
• Currying: Transform functions for better reusability
• Functors & Monads: Handle data transformations elegantly
• Category Theory: Mathematical foundations of functional programming

Getting Started

Start with Chapter 1: What Ever Are We Doing? to begin your journey into functional programming.

About This Guide

This is a book on the functional paradigm in general. We'll use the world's most popular functional programming language: JavaScript. Some may feel this is a poor choice as it's against the grain of the current culture which, at the moment, feels predominately imperative.

However, I believe it is the best way to learn FP for several reasons:

• You likely use it every day at work This makes it possible to practice and apply your newly acquired knowledge each day on real world programs rather than pet projects on nights and weekends in an esoteric FP language.

• We don't have to learn everything up front to start writing programs In a pure functional language, you cannot log a variable or read a DOM node without using monads. Here we can cheat a little as we learn to purify our codebase. It's also easier to get started in this language since it's mixed paradigm and you can fall back on your current practices while there are gaps in your knowledge.

• The language is fully capable of writing top notch functional code We have all the features we need to mimic a language like Scala or Haskell with the help of a tiny library or two. Object-oriented programming currently dominates the industry, but it's clearly awkward in JavaScript. It's akin to camping off of a highway or tap dancing in galoshes. We have to bind all over the place lest this change out from under us, we don't have classes[^1], we have various work arounds for the quirky behavior when the new keyword is forgotten, private members are only available via closures. To many of us, FP feels more natural anyways.

That said, typed functional languages will, without a doubt, be the best place to code in the style presented by this book. JavaScript will be our means of learning a paradigm, where you apply it is up to you. Luckily, the interfaces are mathematical and, as such, ubiquitous. You'll find yourself at home with Swiftz, Scalaz, Haskell, PureScript, and other mathematically inclined environments.

Exercises

Throughout the book, you'll find exercises to test your understanding. The exercises are located in the exercises directory of the repository.

Support

The support functions and algebraic data structures used in this book are available in the support directory.

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[^1]: Classes were added to JavaScript in ES2015, but they are primarily syntactic sugar over the existing prototype-based inheritance.