I don't believe Python supports Functional programming, as in Prolog or somesuch. It supports function-based programming... meaning that your program is just composed of functions not organized into classes and objects. I have gotten the two confused in the past, and I suspect that this is what happened here.
Or does Python really support functional programming? Is there some add-on package that allows this? I wasn't aware of one. -- ansible
Yes, Python really does have some built-in functional programming features such as "map()", "filter()", "reduce()" and a somewhat limited "lambda", although I've read that Guido van Rossum now regrets including these features in the language. As a more readable and "Pythonic" alternative, "list comprehensions" were more recently introduced into the language and can often be used instead of the older functional programming constructs.
I do not think Python is 'strongly influenced' by Perl. In fact the design philosophy is diametrically opposite in some senses.