Erik Meijer: Evaluating Functional Programming Language Purity

[NewsBot]

I caught up with the venerable Erik Meijer recently to discuss functional programming languages, academic versus real-world application of functional programming languages (there are very good reasons why people don't program Windows applications in, say, Haskell...) and, well, Erik. Why does Erik work here? What's his history?*

 

Of course, as an academic type (he also ships software so he's not purely academic... Is that "dishonest", Erik? :)), Erik is a big fan of strict functional or pure functional, as it were. Erik uses the term "dishonest" when it comes to languages that are not functionally pure. Please remember that Erik is not a native English speaker and so his use of the term "dishonest" isn't precise (he's talking about purity, not about truth. Nor does this mean that functional or semi-functional languages that are note purely functional are flawed ...).

 

As always, it's a tremendous pleasure to talk with and learn from Erik.*We can all thank Erik and team for many of the innovations modern day programmers take for granted on the*MS stack *(there would be LINQ right now without Erik's contributions, for one example...).

 

This is a deep interview and Erik spends most of the time on the whiteboard.

 

Enjoy. There's lots to learn in this one...

Listen to the podcast(MP3)

Listen to the podcast(WMA)

Download the Video

Watch the Video

 

More...

 

View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds