Functional Programming For Your Everyday JavaScript Developer
JavaScript has a pretty diverse set of developers. One of the biggest reasons is that JavaScript supports multiple programming paradigms. JavaScript can be written imperatively, you can use an object-oriented approach, and it can be written in a functional style.
Each of these paradigms is beneficial and helps you write better code, but they are very different in the way they choose to solve problems. There is no “superior” way to program, but instead one should learning all three styles of programming to help you have more solutions to solve problems.
Of the three styles, I believe functional-style programming has the largest barrier to learning it. This is even though anyone who has written and non-trivial JavaScript code, probably has used functional style. I believe this is not that functional style is hard to understand. It has more to do with the unfamiliar terminology and emphasis on “theoretical” definitions and examples. And as much as many of us find it interesting, there are not enough “practical” examples that help you get started.
What I will attempt to do in this post is to introduce you to functional programming in a non-jargony and practical way that you can start using in your codebase today.
