FP (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:15, 1 November 2023

Revision as of 15:15, 1 November 2023

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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. It allows building programs from a set of generally useful primitives and avoiding named variables (a style also called [[tacit programming]] or "point free"). It was heavily influenced by [[APL (programming language)|APL]] which was developed by [[Kenneth E. Iverson]] in the early 1960s.<ref name=acm/>

The FP 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 the [[lambda calculus]] paradigm, and not the function-level paradigm Backus had hoped. In his Turing award paper, Backus described how the FP style is different: