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0 pointsTheZenPsycho12y ago0 comments

You can do "Object Oriented programming" in C++. you can also do "OOP" in plain C, but why do we call C++ an "OO Language" but not C? because the design of the language itself encourages and enforces a particular style of "OOP".

In this case, I believe the "Excel is a functional language" meme is using "Excel" not to include ALL the things that excel does, which includes things like VB and Javascript scripting, but as shorthand for the spreadsheet model of application, and more specifically aimed at Excel's formula language, which enforces the creation of first order functions by excluding the possibility of state-fulness and side-effects from the language's design. It is the fact that this is inherent in its design that merits calling it a functional language, while in php there are no such design choices which enforce or even encourage a functional way of writing code.

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TheZenPsychoOP12y ago

Another point to make is that the "Excel is functional" meme is so useful is because, as soon as you tell most programmers that "functional programming" has no variables, no state, and no side-effects, they can't imagine how it's possible to actually do anything useful in a functional language. On the other hand, most programmers do know how to do useful things in a spreadsheet program- which happens to be effectively equivalent to a stateless side-effect free "pure" functional programming language.

ww52012y ago

That's kind of false advertisement. Excel (or spreadsheet in general) is great and easy to use because of declarative programming, not because of functional programming. The functional programming aspect of it is minimal. No variables, no state, and no side-effects are mainly attribute of declarative programming.

The most important aspect of being functional, high order function, is completely missing.

gruseom12y ago

Even "no variables" and "no state" are arguably untrue. The state of a spreadsheet consists of the values sitting in its cells. You mutate them by editing them.

One FP attribute that spreadsheets do have is referential transparency: the same inputs given to the same formula will always produce the same result.

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erichocean12y ago

From Wikipedia[0]:

Common declarative languages include those of database query languages (e.g., SQL, XQuery), regular expressions, logic programming, and functional programming.

I guess you're both right then. :)

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declarative_programming

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