Functional Programming in Scala is a cornerstone for functional developers, demystifying the principles of functional programming. The book emphasizes local reasoning, making code more complicated but less complex, and encourages the use of types and signatures to guide implementation.
Functional Programming in Scala by Paul Chiusano and Runar Bjarnason is highly regarded as a cornerstone for functional developers. The book effectively demystifies functional programming, providing a clear definition and practical applications. One of the key lessons is the concept of local reasoning, which makes code more complicated but less complex by allowing developers to focus on each function in isolation. This approach reduces the interconnectedness of code blocks, making the system easier to manage and less prone to errors. The book also emphasizes the importance of types and signatures in guiding implementation, a principle known as type-driven design. This method ensures that the code is well-documented and easy to maintain. Additionally, the book advocates for the use of exceptions only when necessary and introduces concepts like laziness to separate the description of an expression from its evaluation. Overall, the book provides valuable insights into functional programming principles that can make developers better, regardless of their programming language of choice.
Quick quotes
Functional code is easier to test and reuse, simpler to parallelize, and less prone to bugs than other code.
Any hidden or out-of-band assumptions or behavior that prevent us from treating our components (be they functions or anything else) as black boxes make composition difficult or impossible.
Type-driven development is an approach to coding that embraces types as the foundation of your code - essentially as built-in documentation your compiler can use to check data relationships and other assumptions.