FP (programming language): Difference between revisions

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'''FP''' (short for ''functional programming'')<ref name="Backus 1977"/> is a [[programming language]] created by [[John Backus]] to support the [[function-level programming]]<ref name="Backus 1977"/> paradigm. This allows eliminating named variables. The language was introduced in Backus's 1977 [[Turing Award]] paper, "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?", subtitled "a functional style and its algebra of programs." The paper sparked interest in functional programming research,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Yang|first1=Jean|title=Interview with Simon Peyton-Jones|url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~popl-interviews/peytonjones.html|website=People of Programming Languages|date=2017}}</ref> eventually leading to modern functional languages (which are largely founded on [[lambda calculus paradigm]]), and not the function-level paradigm Backus had hoped.
 
In fact, in his Turing award paper, Backus described how the FP style is different from languages based on the lambda calculus:
 
{{quote|An FP system is based on the use of a fixed set of combining forms called functional forms. These, plus simple definitions, are the only means of building new functions from existing ones; they use no variables or substitutions rules, and they become the operations of an associated algebra of programs. All the functions of an FP system are of one type: they map objects onto objects and always take a single argument.<ref name="Backus 1977"/>}}