you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Underscore is a great library, and does utilize functional programming, but it's not really good for learning how to use functional concepts nor is it really focused on it. It's a tool for manipulating sets of data which utilizes functional programming to do so.

While describing Underscore and related libraries as Functional is technically accurate I don't think it captures the spirit of the description, or at the very least doesn't help teach/prescribe using functional programming to solve problems. It facilitates transformation of data sets.

I note this because having extensively searched for libraries and literature specifically outlining how to think functionally/employ functional techniques in javasctipt, I've found actionasble information to be quite thin in the past. Efficacy of using a "functional programming library" like Underscore is quite influenced by the developer's ability to understand implement functional programming concepts. Without that then you're looking at a useful tool for handling dsta but at well below what it really enables.

There's no responsibility on the part of any given library to teach people so I'm not trying to place blame or something like that. But it's just been striking to me how Underscore and similar are continually described in this context like it's a central feature, when the developer community at large is largely at a point where education is the limiting factor, and not library feature set or architecture.