Gain insights into functional programming with OCaml and Haskell, explore lambda calculus, abstractions, and dataflows, and learn to apply these concepts to real-world scenarios, contrasting with Java.

ocaml_utop_haskell.tar.gz

OCaml

Functional programming is a paradigm that builds complete applications by breaking down programs into constituent functions that empowers developers to build fast, bug-resistant applications.

You’ll be introduced to functional programming with illustrative examples contrasting the more widely used imperative programming paradigm. You’ll review lambda calculus as an introduction to expressions, the building blocks of functional programs. You’ll continue with abstractions and complex data types before exploring common computation patterns. Next, you’ll learn how dataflows create whole programs out of existing functions. Finally, you’ll finish by applying your functional programming knowledge to various real-world scenarios. At each step, you’ll learn OCaml and Haskell, while contrasting imperative programming with Java.

By the end of this course, you’ll be prepared to use functional programming in your daily work and have the framework to know when to use either imperative or functional paradigms.

Mastering Functional Programming with OCaml and Haskell

# Next steps from here


The best thing you can do is apply functional programming to your projects. Most mainstream programming languages—including Kotlin, Java, JavaScript, Swift, Python, and Scala—readily support functional programming and typically provide extensive documentation on how to do so.

There are many excellent books, tutorials, and blog posts about functional programming out there. Each will have its own merit, depending on what you want to dig deeper into. If you want to learn more about the functional way of thinking, I heartily recommend the following two masterpieces:

+ “Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs” (also known as SICP or the Wizard book) by MIT professors Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman, with Julie Sussman.
+ “Thinking Functionally with Haskell” by Oxford professor Richard Bird.

The two books [Real-world OCaml](https://dev.realworldocaml.org/toc.html) and [Real-world Haskell](http://book.realworldhaskell.org/) are excellent resources for those who want to learn more about OCaml and Haskell.

If you want to do functional programming in a particular language such as Scala, Java, Kotlin, Swift, Python, and more, you’ll have no problem finding books, tutorials, or documentation to learn the particular syntax and idioms in that language. However, the fundamentals discussed in this course will remain valid regardless of the programming language.

Before ending the course, let’s recall what we mentioned in the introduction. Mastering functional programming lies in the balancing act between striving to grasp the fundamental principles and applying them to real-world problems pragmatically. Thank you for sticking with this course on the art of functional programming. We hope you’ve learned a lot and enjoyed it as much as we did while creating this course.


The next steps you can take upon completing this course.


Where to Go from Here?

The next steps you can take upon completing this course.

Introduction

Expressions: Building Blocks of Functional Programs

Building Abstractions with Functions

Compound Data Types

Common Computation Patterns

Dataflow Programming with Functions

Applying Functional Programming to Various Domains

Conclusion

Appendix

Where to Go from Here?

Next steps from here