Concepts
Functional Programming
Also Known As FP
Paradigm
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Functional programming is a programming paradigm in which programs are constructed by applying and composing functions, treating computation as evaluation rather than as a sequence of state changes. Its formal root is the lambda calculus, developed in the 1930s by Alonzo Church as a system of computation built from function application, and its first high level language was Lisp, developed in the late 1950s for the IBM 700 and 7000 series scientific computers.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearThe lambda calculus (1930s) and Lisp (1958) supplied functional programming's mathematical and practical roots, but the paradigm was named and argued for as a discipline in John Backus's 1977 Turing Award lecture, so scholars date the named paradigm differently from its technical origins. Core PrincipleBuild programs by composing functions that return values, avoiding changing state, so that a piece of code means the same thing wherever it runs. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
John McCarthy, Pioneers John McCarthy's Lisp (1958) was the first language to embody functional programming's core ideas, treating functions as first-class values and favoring recursion over iteration.
Lisp, Languages Lisp is the first high level functional programming language.
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