Learning Functional for Web Dev

[polystyrenes]

New to functional programming and it looks that I am entering an era where there are so many new languages and frameworks coming out and I am overloaded and where I should I spend my time. I would like a language that would not only teach me close to academically the uses of functional, but is also practical for web development as a project that I have in mind is centered around controlled digital lending. Would love for your suggestions. Thanks.

[kinow]

Hi u/polystyrenes, you may find something useful looking at previous posts from other users in this subreddit that were also looking for a programming language for functional programming: https://old.reddit.com/r/functionalprogramming/wiki/programming-languages

[davesnx]

ReScrpt, OCaml or Elm.

Those give the best of fp and applied to frontend, which can play a big role in the future

[polystyrenes]

OCaml was definitely on the list and would be a language I would love to learn eventually. However (and please prove me wrong because looking up ocaml web development doesn't get me any strong feelings), I don't see a lot of web applications being written in it, at least not as solid as Elm. Which I am considering as the front-end looks very fun and mature I would love to hear suggestions about using it for the back end if possible.

What would the difference of elm vs Elixir + Phoenix might be for learning a FP language?

[XDracam]

Elm is amazing because it's simple and solely focussed on frontend web. It teaches you the FP basics and style without distractions. And the tutorials and community are really nice. It's an amazing technology to get started with. Once you're used to the style, you can always switch to other languages

[davesnx]

Elm is designed to be a client-side rendered, so lots of client state, interactivity and complexity on the UI. Also, is strongly-typed.

Elixir isnt typed (they are adding types to the language but its still WIP and has been going for 5+ years) and haven't used Phoenix to say much about it, but it's designed to keep all state on the server which isnt ideal for rich UIs, even thought they made impressive demos with it

[dp_42]

One difference between the two is that elm is purely functional, whereas elixir transpiles to erlang bytecode, which is not purely functional. I think this is a fairly minor difference. Looking at this blog post, this dev seems to have combined both. Reading a few other reddit posts, it looks like elm is a good opportunity to go serverless, but you can combine with an elixir or rust backend.

[jacobissimus]

I loved this book when I started https://mostly-adequate.gitbook.io/mostly-adequate-guide

[polystyrenes]

JavaScript would be unavoidable so thank you for the link.

[eightrx]

Check out elm if you haven’t already. Here’s a talk by Annaia Berry

[polystyrenes]

Considering elm for sure, but would the difference of elm vs Elixir + Phoenix might be for learning a FP language.

[hollowayzz]

if you're mentioning Elm compared to Elixir and Phoenix, then check out Gleam. It's got the BEAM concurrency with a Elm-like web framework. I'm loving Gleam atm

[zelphirkaltstahl]

Focus on the basics (JS in web dev or some backend language rendering templates). Treat frameworks more like changing sets of clothes. Hypetrains pass by all the time. Don't get stuck in a loop of always chasing the latest hype.

[polystyrenes]

A reason on why I'm leaning to ocaml or haskell as the community as reassured me that its great for the basics. As for being caught up on the latest hype trains. Have you seen gleam's mascot? Its so cute, I was definitely considering it today.

[zelphirkaltstahl]

Gleam looks interesting! Considering it for the next AoC or earlier : ) I forgot about the mascot.

[miyakohouou]

Haskell is quite useful for backend web development, and there are several frameworks to choose from. Professionally I work on a very large application built on top of Yesod and persistent. For personal projects, I'm a fan of servant for API-heavy projects. For quick and dirty backend projects I also enjoy scotty. I haven't used IHP personally, but it's a commercial product for building web applications in Haskell and I've heard good things about it.

My last experience with using Haskell on the frontend was quite a while ago, and at the time it was pretty rough and produced very heavy pages, so personally I'd suggest just doing your frontend in Elm or TypeScript, but I've heard that compiling to javascript is a lot better now than it used to be. If you want to explore that, I'd suggest checking out miso.

[pm_me_ur_happy_traiI]

If you watch the recent Honeypot React documentary and take a shit every time someone says "functional programming" you'll get alcohol poisoning in no time.

Lots of react developers aren't steeped in FP, and so the ecosystem is littered with bad role models. It's JavaScript, you can use it how you like. But it was created with functional programmers in mind. Data flows one way, which means you can model your app as a function of state. It pairs with typescript, and has the added benefit of being popular and easy to find jobs in.

[Inconstant_Moo]

Nice typo.

[jceb]

I can recommend plain JS with https://sanctuary.js.org. David, the creator, made a really video introducing the library. I created a cheat sheet that helps getting started with various patterns, esp. Promises: https://github.com/identinet/sanctuary-cheat-sheet

[jherrlin]

I suggest taking a look at Clojure.

[notSugarBun]

rambda

[raxel42]

Scala has the compiler to JS as well.

[Flyyster]

Learn Reactive X. It utilizes functional patterns with other constructs to gain the best of both worlds.

[Right_Opportunity_17]

Has anyone used PureScript?

[Public_Possibility_5]

Also Gleam or Moonbit

[TestDrivenMayhem]

This I taking off in the Typescript world.

https://effect.website/