Technical reports

Making form follow function
An exercise in functional programming style

Jon Fairbairn

June 1986, 9 pages

DOI: 10.48456/tr-89

Abstract

The combined use of user-defined infix operators and higher order functions allows the programmer to invent new control structures tailored to a particular problem area.

This paper is to suggest that such a combination has beneficial effects on the ease of both writing and reading programmes, and hence can increase programmer productivity. As an example, a parser for a simple language is presented in this style.

It is hoped that the presentation will be palatable to people unfamiliar with the concepts of functional programming.

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BibTeX record

@TechReport{UCAM-CL-TR-89,
  author =	 {Fairbairn, Jon},
  title = 	 {{Making form follow function : An exercise in functional
         	   programming style}},
  year = 	 1986,
  month = 	 jun,
  url = 	 {https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-89.pdf},
  institution =  {University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory},
  doi = 	 {10.48456/tr-89},
  number = 	 {UCAM-CL-TR-89}
}