PurelyFunctional.tv Newsletter 291: Metaphor, Puzzles, Ions

Written by Eric Normand. Published: September 10, 2018.

Eric Normand's Newsletter

Software design, functional programming, and software engineering practices

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Issue 291 - September 10, 2018 · Archives · Subscribe

Hi Clojurers,

Please enjoy the issue.

Rock on!

PS Want to get this in your email? Subscribe!

Hire me to train your team

I have a couple of spots open for client work. I'm currently offering two specialized services:

Clojure Kickstart is training to get your team of programmers productive in Clojure. Get the skills, the tooling, and the workflow you need to make the most of Clojure.

After the Prototype is where I and your team workshop a powerful core abstraction and come up with a plan for refactoring it into your codebase.

If you or someone you know are interested, please reply to this email.

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Metaphor

Julie Moronuki explains how metaphor enables mathematics. There's a lot of wonderful stuff in here about the different kinds of metaphor and the ways they help us come up with new concepts.

Why Elixir Matters: A Genealogy of Functional Programming YouTube

Osa Gaius goes through a brief history of functional programming, and a hope for FP in the future.

Programming Languages are not Languages

Alvaro Videla explores whether the metaphor of "language" applied to programming language is stretched too far.

Puzzle Development: A Clojure Case Study YouTube

Mark Engelberg shows how he uses Clojure to analyze puzzles and games he designs.

I like how he uses the example of someone who solved them same problem in Java and how Clojure's features made everything easier.

A plea for lean software Paper

Niklaus Wirth discusses the development of Oberon, how three people managed to build a complete workstation in three years (Oberon), and why commercial software gets bloated.

Is functional programming declarative? Podcast

People use the term "declarative" to describe functional programming, and that bothers me. I go on for 16 minutes! But I make a lot of important points.

Rapid Java Innovation YouTube

Georges Saab, from Oracle, talks about Java's release cycle.

Datomic Ions in Seven Minutes YouTube

Stuart Halloway explains Ions.

I Find Bugs too Boring to Write

Arlo Belshee shows how he uses refactoring to understand a legacy codebase.

Category Theory from the Universe Up

This is a free course I made because I was dissatisfied with the Category Theory material. Categories are super cool and don't need to be hard. I explain all of the main categories (Monoids, Functors, Applicatives, and Monads) with real world objects (because many real world objects obey the laws). I also attempt to exp lain why these things are so hard to teach.