Hey everyone! I'm looking to dive into a functional programming language and I already have some experience with imperative languages. Since I'm just a hobbyist, I'm hoping to have some fun with this. My main goal right now is to focus on data visualization or plotting, ideally something simple like Desmos or Geogebra. I've seen a bunch of options out there like Haskell, Elm, Elixir, Clojure, and more, but I'm unsure which one would be the best fit for me. I appreciate any suggestions or insights you might have! Thanks a lot!
6 Answers
Racket could be a solid choice! It has a strong educational community and is well-suited for grasping the concepts of functional programming. Plus, there are many specialized offshoots tailored to different use cases. Elixir is cool too, though I find the way it handles functions can be a bit quirky!
I definitely recommend Haskell! It's a great choice, and while the learning curve is quite steep, you’ll learn a ton about functional programming principles. Just be ready for some challenges!
Not sure about data visualization specifically, but I found a great exercise for learning functional programming by implementing algorithms like factorial and Fibonacci in pure Church encoding using JavaScript. It’s a real brain-teaser! Haskell is excellent, but keep in mind it's very type-system focused, which can be a whole different challenge. Also, if you're familiar with imperative languages, it might feel quite different trying to switch to functional programming.
If you're looking for something that blends functional and OOP, Scala might be your best bet. It's pretty versatile and runs on the JVM, which makes starting out easier. Plus, you can use IntelliJ IDE for free to write your code!
You should consider learning Rust! It's not completely functional, but it's a mix of paradigms and can be quite fun to work with.
That's true about Rust, but I do wonder if it's really functional enough for what I'm looking for!
I learned Haskell and found it really rewarding. I'd suggest building most things yourself for practice, like working with state and exploring laziness, which is something unique. If you're looking for a more practical option, Gleam is great since it’s new, has solid tooling, and focuses on getting things done while being functional. But for learning deeper programming language features, Haskell and OCaml are hard to beat! Just not sure how their visualization capabilities stand up.
Haskell sounds interesting, but I have to admit, that learning curve does look a bit intimidating!