{"id":1278,"date":"2018-12-02T14:37:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T09:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rangakrish.com\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2018-12-03T17:27:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T11:57:11","slug":"book-review-functional-programming-in-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rangakrish.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/02\/book-review-functional-programming-in-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Functional Programming in C++"},"content":{"rendered":"

Title: Functional Programming in C++: How to improve your C++ programs using functional techniques<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Author: Ivan Cukic<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Publisher: Manning Publications Co.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Year: 2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This book came out recently, about a week ago. I bought it immediately, and when I started to read it, I couldn\u2019t put it down! Very informative and well written.<\/p>\n

If you are new to C++, it is better to read the book after gaining some familiarity with C++ first. You might also benefit by going through other books on Functional Programming<\/strong><\/em> (FP<\/strong><\/em>) as supplementary reading material.<\/p>\n

Before I delve into the book, I want to highlight the fact that C++ is NOT<\/strong> a functional<\/strong><\/em> programming language, just as it is NOT<\/strong> an object-oriented<\/strong><\/em> programming language. It is a multi-paradigm<\/strong><\/em> programming language, and allows us to choose the appropriate mix of language features for solving a given problem. The exciting news is that more exotic features are expected in C++20<\/strong><\/em> (and beyond). So, as C++ programmers, we are truly privileged!<\/p>\n

Here is an overview of what the book covers.<\/p>\n

This book is a sincere attempt to lay a solid foundation for how C++ could be used as a functional language.<\/p>\n

The first two chapters provide the necessary introductory material for what comes later, by giving an overview of the principles of functional programming in general, and the features of C++ that enable this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The third chapter goes into the details of function objects<\/strong><\/em> in C++, including normal functions<\/strong><\/em>, classes<\/strong><\/em> that behave like function objects, std::function<><\/strong><\/em>, lambdas<\/strong><\/em>, and even gives some examples from the Boost.Phoenix<\/strong><\/em><\/a> library. For people familiar with C++, this chapter might appear somewhat redundant, but I feel the author has done the right thing by including it because it provides continuity and makes the book more widely accessible.<\/p>\n

In the fourth chapter, the author explains the notion of partial functions<\/strong><\/em> and how to implement them in C++ using std::bind<><\/strong> and lambda<\/strong><\/em> functions. Then he describes what currying<\/strong><\/em> is and how curried functions can be implemented using nested lambda<\/strong><\/em> functions. Many people find the difference between partial functions<\/strong><\/em> and currying<\/strong><\/em> difficult to understand, but this chapter provides a good overview of the topics.\u00a0 <\/span>There is also a brief discussion on function composition<\/strong><\/em> and function lifting<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The fifth chapter is about pure functions<\/strong><\/em> and how to write code that does not<\/strong><\/em> have side effects (not a trivial task in many cases). The sixth chapter is about lazy evaluation<\/strong><\/em> and memoization<\/strong><\/em>, common themes in functional programming.<\/p>\n

The seventh chapter discusses Ranges<\/strong><\/em>, a feature that is planned for C++20<\/strong><\/em>. The author explains the idea using the range-v3<\/strong><\/em><\/a> library (somewhat similar to Boost.Range<\/strong><\/em><\/a>). I merely skimmed through this chapter, deciding to wait for official support of the feature in the language.<\/p>\n

In the next chapter, there is a nice explanation of functional data structures<\/strong><\/em>. These are data structures that are immutable<\/strong><\/em> and hence support efficient copying. Bartosz Milewski<\/strong><\/em>, another experienced C++ developer, has implemented a few functional data structures in C++ and here<\/strong><\/em><\/a> is a video talk given by him.<\/p>\n

The next two chapters talk about Algebraic Data Types<\/strong><\/em> and Monads<\/strong><\/em>. s<\/strong>td::optional<><\/strong><\/em> is an example of Monad<\/strong><\/em>, as well as the forthcoming std::expected<><\/strong><\/em>. If you would like an overview of Monads<\/strong><\/em>, I recommend this video tutorial<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. You might also want to watch this video<\/a><\/strong><\/em> on std::expected<><\/strong><\/em> planned for C++20.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Chapter 11 covers Template Metaprogramming<\/strong><\/em>. This is not directly concerned with functional programming, but the idea is useful in implementing FP<\/strong><\/em> abstractions. I liked the last section of this chapter, which touches upon DSL<\/strong><\/em>s.<\/p>\n

Chapter 12 details the complexity of building concurrent<\/strong><\/em> systems and gives FP-based solutions for the same. This is easily one of the best chapters in the book.<\/p>\n

The last chapter focusses on Testing<\/strong><\/em> and Debugging<\/strong><\/em>. In addition to showing how to write test cases, the author ably demonstrates how it is possible to even generate test cases automatically in certain cases!<\/p>\n

Functional programming<\/strong><\/em> is gaining a lot of attention these days. Although one could use a pure functional language such as Haskell<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, being able to apply functional programming techniques in a mainstream language such as C++ has immense benefits. Doing this correctly in C++ might take a while for novice C++ developers (perhaps even for experienced ones!), but the effort is well worth it.<\/p>\n

Ivan Cukic<\/strong><\/em>, a respected software developer and researcher, clearly demonstrates his knowledge and deep understanding of the subject through this book. Here is a brief video talk<\/strong><\/em><\/a> on the subject by him.<\/p>\n

Buy the book. Read it. Read it again.<\/strong><\/em> If you are a C++ programmer, you will definitely become a better C++ programmer. In fact, you will become a better programmer, period!<\/p>\n

Have a great weekend!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title: Functional Programming in C++: How to improve your C++ programs using functional techniques Author: Ivan Cukic Publisher: Manning Publications Co. Year: 2019 This book came out recently, about a week ago. I bought it immediately, and when I started to read it, I couldn\u2019t put it down! Very informative and well written. If you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,49,17],"tags":[67,171],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-c","category-programming","tag-c","tag-functional-programming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9OLnF-kC","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2496,"url":"https:\/\/www.rangakrish.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/07\/first-encounter-with-the-ring-programming-language\/","url_meta":{"origin":1278,"position":0},"title":"First Encounter with the Ring Programming Language","author":"admin","date":"August 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ring Programming Language, designed by Mahmoud Fayed,\u00a0 has been around since 2016. I came to know of it quite accidentally two weeks ago when I received a promotional email from Apress about their book \"Beginning Ring Programming\" by Mansour Ayouni, published in 2020. I immediately did a google search\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "C++"","block_context":{"text":"C++","link":"https:\/\/www.rangakrish.com\/index.php\/category\/c\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring Installation Directory","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rangakrish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/directory-300x155.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2935,"url":"https:\/\/www.rangakrish.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/07\/why-learn-c\/","url_meta":{"origin":1278,"position":1},"title":"Why Learn C++","author":"admin","date":"November 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the third and the last article in the series \u201cWhy Learn Language-XYZ?\u201d. I talked about Prolog and Lisp earlier. The present article is on C++. 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