Comments on: Just find me the lock I need to crack http://labnotes.org/2009/03/20/just-find-me-the-lock-i-need-to-crack/ Tue, 15 May 2012 02:41:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: kball http://labnotes.org/2009/03/20/just-find-me-the-lock-i-need-to-crack/comment-page-1/#comment-141944 kball Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:52:49 +0000 http://blog.labnotes.org/?p=1281#comment-141944 The interesting thing to me is that while jQuery does not do functional programming, what makes it so effective are actually its use of concepts from functional programming. The jQuery object is a list, and basically all of the methods are maps, filters (special case reductions), and things built on top of those two core concepts. The biggest difference to me is what Damien said, that in functional programming the state change doesn't take effect until the new state is completely ready. Modifying jQuery to do this would essentially just mean lazily evaluating the transformations and applying them all at once at the end of the chain of methods. And it would be nice if jQuery did have a general case reduction as well as the special case of filters, but I'm not sure if thats valuable for DOM manipulation, which seems to be the primary target they are after. The interesting thing to me is that while jQuery does not do functional programming, what makes it so effective are actually its use of concepts from functional programming. The jQuery object is a list, and basically all of the methods are maps, filters (special case reductions), and things built on top of those two core concepts.

The biggest difference to me is what Damien said, that in functional programming the state change doesn’t take effect until the new state is completely ready. Modifying jQuery to do this would essentially just mean lazily evaluating the transformations and applying them all at once at the end of the chain of methods.

And it would be nice if jQuery did have a general case reduction as well as the special case of filters, but I’m not sure if thats valuable for DOM manipulation, which seems to be the primary target they are after.

]]> By: Damien Katz http://labnotes.org/2009/03/20/just-find-me-the-lock-i-need-to-crack/comment-page-1/#comment-141943 Damien Katz Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:05:56 +0000 http://blog.labnotes.org/?p=1281#comment-141943 Functional programming doesn't make programming easier, it makes *reliable* programming easier. In the example you gave, if one of the steps causes an error, you'll wind up in a half-modified state. Maybe it's not a big deal, or maybe it locks up the UI. It's hard to tell. With functional programming, the state change doesn't take effect until the new state is completely ready. If there is an error, the UI still has it's previous state. Functional programming doesn’t make programming easier, it makes *reliable* programming easier.

In the example you gave, if one of the steps causes an error, you’ll wind up in a half-modified state. Maybe it’s not a big deal, or maybe it locks up the UI. It’s hard to tell.

With functional programming, the state change doesn’t take effect until the new state is completely ready. If there is an error, the UI still has it’s previous state.

]]> By: Dr Nic http://labnotes.org/2009/03/20/just-find-me-the-lock-i-need-to-crack/comment-page-1/#comment-141941 Dr Nic Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:17:56 +0000 http://blog.labnotes.org/?p=1281#comment-141941 It is interesting that it all the programming models we learn at university, I don't recollect ever once someone saying "X model is best because it makes programming a whole lot easier in situations A,B,C" Who would have thought method chaining was so powerful and fun to use that you just had to have it for DOM manipulation? It is interesting that it all the programming models we learn at university, I don’t recollect ever once someone saying “X model is best because it makes programming a whole lot easier in situations A,B,C” Who would have thought method chaining was so powerful and fun to use that you just had to have it for DOM manipulation?

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