[erlang-questions] Does Erlang pure functional programming language?

[Tom Murphy]

On Jan 20, 2012 1:39 AM, "Ahmed Al-Saadi" <thaterlangguy@REDACTED> wrote:
>
> Abdul Fattah:
>
> If you want a pure functional language, look at Haskell. A good
indication that a programming language is purely functional is its use of
monads.
>

Monads are a way of "interfacing" between pure and impure code, so in a
sense this is true, but many languages (like OCaml?) bridge the divide
differently. In its essence, having pure functons simply means being able
to define functions which are unable to perform side-effects. So Erlang
could add support for pure functions, without really needing to change
anything else within the language.

> Erlang may not be purely functional, but it is certainly pure pleasure ;)
>

Agreed! As is Haskell - don't let monads scare you.

Tom
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/attachments/20120120/2765d608/attachment.htm>