fp-basics

Module description

Functional programming is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changing-state and mutable data. It is becoming increasingly important for front-end developers due to the following reasons:

1. Predictability: Functional programming promotes immutability, reducing the chances of unexpected side effects and making the code more predictable. It's easier to debug and test functional code.

2. Readability: Functional code, which emphasizes immutability and stateless functions, can often be more readable and easier to understand than imperative or object-oriented code.

3. Concurrency: With the rise of multi-core and concurrent processing, functional programming concepts are becoming ever more valuable because they help avoid common issues with concurrent computation by not having mutable data and state-change issues.

4. Efficiency: Certain functional programming techniques can optimize the application, making operations like string and array manipulation more efficient, which is essential in front-end development.

5. JavaScript Libraries: Libraries/frameworks like React and Redux, which are widely used in modern front-end development, incorporate functional programming concepts. For example, React involves creating pure components, and Redux involves reducing collections of data with reducer functions to manage the application state.

6. Higher Order Functions: Understanding functional programming will allow you to comprehend and properly utilize higher-order functions and other JavaScript built-in methods such as .map(), .reduce(), and .filter().

7. Code Testing: It's generally easier to test functional code. The concept of pure functions, which give the same output for the same input without causing side effects, can simplify automated unit testing.

In conclusion, a basic understanding of functional programming not only opens the door to using functional languages and many powerful JavaScript libraries and frameworks, but also equips developers to write more efficient, clean, and reliable code.

Education materials

• Functional Programming Course
• What is Functional Programming?
• What Is a Pure Function in JavaScript?
• Mutability vs Immutability
• First-Class and Higher-Order Functions
• The Fundamentals of Function Composition
• Currying
• Currying and Partial Application in JavaScript
• Recursion and Stack
• How to use Memoize to cache JavaScript function results and speed up your code

Optional materials

• Functional Programming in JavaScript
• Functional Programming With JavaScript: A Deep Dive
• Learn Functional Programming With JavaScript