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. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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 FAQs
Where did the ideas behind functional programming come from?
It grew from Church's 1930s lambda calculus and reached wide attention through Lisp and Backus's 1977 lecture.
The formal root is the lambda calculus, a system of computation built from function application that Alonzo Church developed in the 1930s. Lisp, developed in the late 1950s, was the first high level language in this style. The idea was brought to wider attention in 1977, when John Backus presented FP, a functional style and its algebra of programs, in his Turing Award lecture titled Can Programming Be Liberated From the von Neumann Style?
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.
Source The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital RevolutionWalter Isaacson
Lisp is the first high level functional programming language.
Source Wikipedia: Functional programming
In Field
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Functional programming
WikipediaIntroduction and History sections
functional programming is a programming paradigm where programs are constructed by applying and composing functions.
History section
The lambda calculus, developed in the 1930s by Alonzo Church, is a formal system of computation built from function application.
History
John Backus presented FP in his 1977 Turing Award lecture "Can Programming Be Liberated From the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and its Algebra of Programs".
In Group: Core Programming Paradigms, Lead
In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm where programs are constructed by applying and composing functions.
View the Source The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Walter Isaacson, Simon and Schuster, 2014Associated With: John McCarthy
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