Do you even functional bro?

My interest grew from a side conversation I over-heard. After that, every taste taught me something different. There is something truly haunting about functional programming.
I have completed Functional Programming in Scala. I was not fully prepared for the learning curve as many of the concepts and principles were new to me. What I took away from the course has had a real impact on the way I approach software development.

The discussion

Of course there is debate, we are spoiled for choice. There are three classic schools: imperative, procedural & functional. They all have their strengths. I have used imperative more than procedural. So when tasked with converting your general approach and thoughts regarding programming, a lot depends on the context. Concession make sense as stated by in Just enough functional programming. You then also get the other view in Empty promises and heresy.

Being fully emerged in a functional environment enables deeper insights but needs to be part of your daily life. At the time, I had yet to integrate a fully functional approach into my daily tasks.

Is that you JS?

My first love was ActionScript. I still miss features of the language. There was even a time I used ActionScript & JavaScript in tandem, the two ECMAScript twins. I hurt when they fought and I was sad to see ActionScript leave… I resented JavaScript. This changed with time as I learned that it was not JavaScript that I was resenting but rather the contemporary practises. In time, I witnessed JavaScript adapt and morph into what we see today.

In many ways, I am grateful that the web has iterated so rapidly enabling an environment for React. I felt joy when I realised 'how' React was solving many of my more common struggles.

React lands

So after a fairly in depth introduction to functional I was presented with a problem that I wanted to solve with my new found knowledge. At the same time I started reading about ReactJS, and that is when I really became excited.

I do not think that I would have had the same reaction about React if I had not actively been looking for a functional solution to a rich, interactive, static web components. I raced through Modern React with redux and was thrilled when I realised that it was actively supporting a functional approach. Lodash integrated seamlessly and it was easy enough to extend with other libraries that I needed.

I knew I was getting serious about React when I integrated rjsx-mode, with a couple of personal tweaks, into my standard Emacs build. Aside from a few issues I could not immediately solve with what was there and supported, I dived into this exciting new world of functional front-end.