Learning Functional Programming with JavaScript - Anjana Vakil - JSUnconf

Anjana's next talk at JSConf EU in May: 2017.jsconf.eu/speakers/anjana...
Slides: slidr.io/vakila/learning-func...

[@madwilliamflint]

I've been programming for almost 40 years. That's the best explanation of map/reduce I've ever seen.

[@MADPURO]

what are your main language(s)?

[@80amnesia]

Fortran, Cobol, Algol and Altair BASIC

[@sammokkabasi8957]

whoa.

[@cwmoser]

Tom Pitman's Tiny Basic ... along with Fortran, Cobol, PL/1, and Algol.

[@ibuprofen303]

I do Sinclair Spectrum basic. With a rubber keypad. I've just finished yet another "Breakout" game and I'm currently saving it to cassette.

[@giancarloandrebravoabanto7091]

1:52 definition, 2:56 why, 7:52 example pure fx, 8:58 high order fx, 13:13 inmutable, 16:17 inmutable: persistent data estructure, 21:24 reference material, 22:35 main article

[@zaminhaidry]

👍

[@andrewferguson6901]

value

[@gene0]

29:10 war is ready

[@sujalbalar316]

Good job 👍

[@zaminhaidry]

👍🏻

[@recursiveackermann9819]

This is possibly one of the best 30 minutes of my life as a software engineer. Thank you.

[@Eltramicst]

"About 6 months ago, I knew nothing about functional programming and very little about Javascript," she says while giving a talk about functional programming to an audience of programmers at a Javascript conference.. That is insanely impressive.

[@user-sy7lm6lw8i]

I've been learning JS for 4 months and now I am doubting my progress =(

[@Chillycloth]

@@user-sy7lm6lw8i use it with HTML and CSS. Easier to learn it

[@Helvanic]

As a programmer that already knows about those subjects, I wish somebody would have explained them to me that way the first time I looked into it. Great talk.

[@howardlam6181]

I am now a tutor of a python course so seeing how the others present these kinds of topics should help me understand how to make it more approachable.

[@valen8560]

true, have learnt all these already, but the hard way

[@balanrouge1227]

Hi, how would you describe the difference between a function and a method from the object oriented paradigm? Just trying to understand the functional programming mindset :) cheers

[@punkgrl325]

@@balanrouge1227 So the way it works is, a method is a function that's declared within an object. I guess in Java, all the functions would be methods, because all the code in a program is contained within an object class. This isn't the case in Javascript though. In Javascript, you can have functions that are independent of objects, so they wouldn't be methods. The in-built functions in Javascript are technically methods though, as they're usually part of some type of core protoype object within the language itself ( string.concat(), array.push(), etc). In object-oriented Javascript, the functions would be methods following the object-oriented paradigm, but in functional programming, the functions are usually self-contained and return some sort of reusable code or instructions for the program (like how the functional components in React work). So for the most part, you can say methods are a type of function, but not all functions are methods. I hope that helps in some way :)

[@Rajdeep369]

she's a great communicator

[@ajaymenon0]

I think the background of being an English teacher really shows how she's so comfortable with her speech.

[@stopthrm]

yes she is. What's ironic is that I used to feel like I could write and communicate very clearly but after being a programmer for a few years, my written communication has slipped backwards.

[@Natasha-to1mh]

@@stopthrm programming requires you to have a more abstract/logical mindset sort of like whats needed in mathematics and engineering professions. I found myself switching a bit in personalities/values when I devote more time programming within a timeframe compared to when I devote more time in music.

[@venvilhenrydsilva8354]

Well, she's a philosophy major! also an English teacher.

[@florinteodorescu5493]

She was an ESL teacher. If you're shy or boring, the students will eat you alive.

[@ToveriJuri]

She does a very good job at introducing the very basic concept behind FP and she's easy to listen to. Excellent video.

[@kierranpurden2150]

Agreed, she actually makes so much sense.

[@vim6284]

She's not like a bunch of pedantic dudes who talk around and pretend as if they are intelligent, but she thoroughly understands the core and generously and effectively delivers her knowledge. I wish she was my professor.

[@i3130002]

Honestly I waited for her to explain why to use mutable method, the reason is to be able to shallow compare objects so react for example, be able to detect object changes!

[@balazsorosz6845]

soooooooooooo true

[@RexGalilae]

I mean, she's at the stage where she's experienced enough to have formed an intuitive understanding yet too new to have formed a superiority complex over it

[@jotang3694]

I couldn't agree more

[@euihyunan3768]

This is why i like listening to students presentations. You actually learn more from the students because they understand what we probably had a hard time in.

[@paullikethesaint]

Good talk. She's an excellent communicator which I'm sure has a lot to do with being other things prior to being a software engineer.

[@michaelpritchard2350]

This is great! I am learning JS, and the functional paradigm fits in exactly with what I want my code to do: Input-function-output. Perfect!

[@NicholasEymann]

This is one of the best intros to functional programming I have ever seen!

[@Codetutor-DemystifyCoding]

I am a programmer, I know and use the concepts that she is talking about in my daily work. But I was still hooked to the way she was explaining these things. The fact that she doesn't come from typical programming back ground is something that makes her communication her USP. Very well explained!!!

[@tack3132]

The best explanation of what functional programming is that I have heard. Thanks a lot, Anjana.

[@PRINCE-XII-A]

Her voice is so good 😍

[@abnormalmindset]

I remember watching her lecture about a year ago as a newbie to Functional Programming. Now that I have some knowledge in FP I really enjoyed her lecture.

[@aldinlapinig]

wow... how did you manage to explain things in a very simplistic manner?? Great job on the presentation! Keep it up...

[@02minutesvideography20]

Great wisdom ! She accept she don't know a lot but still confidently delivered what she know. Appreciated!

[@sunnyhours84]

Wow, amazing sum up of all these techniques. You can tell she has been a teacher. Tough crowd though.

[@rorycawley]

Best talk on functional programming I've yet seen. Great to see it on JS too!

[@Ganesh-Shrestha]

Awesome, nice presentation on intro to functional programming and a great transformation from English Teacher to Computational Linguist turn now as Software Developer. Great Job !!!

[@JohnDavidHarbison]

Such a good job! I had no intention of watching the entire video - but here I am 30 mins later, and I would totally have watched more. Great intro that has me seriously considering these design patterns for my future JS programs!

[@cyberprodigy]

John David Harbison same happened to me. :)

[@mollymccarronproduct]

I am new to JS and coming from an object oriented Ruby background I was struggling to understand the 'why' of functional programming. This video brought so much clarity! Thanks so much Anjana! Such an entertaining and easy to follow talk!

[@BabyBearRudy]

She was really good at explaining this. Not many resources out there elaborate on these ideas and simplify them the way she did. Great job, you can tell she is an educator at heart.

[@jsnadrian]

really cool talk - like how sincerely excited she is! im still pretty horrible at functional thinking, but that's on me.

[@candidodmv]

Congrats for this amazing presentation.

[@andrewilliams1974]

Anjana definitely had my attention. I learned a lot from her and she is easy to listen to. Great communicator!

[@aminzarei1557]

After all multiplatform, react,redux and even Ml programming with js this talk was great enough to hear it all.

[@lokeshbramhe9458]

She does a very good job at introducing the very basic concept behind FP and she's easy to listen to. Excellent video, she's a great communicator

[@christerjohanzzon]

3 years later, this is still brilliant! A really good explanation that I am going to refer to.

[@Killofamas]

6 years after, still is !

[@boxherold1177]

This was the best explanation I have ever seen on this. It’s nice to have someone actually explain things instead of trying to show off how much jargon they know

[@aduonye]

Wow! What a clear and concise explanation, she carried us along the entire discussion with her presentation, and now I get a hang of functional programming and understanding these buzz words like a pure function, mutability, closure, structural sharing, and more.

[@martinciscap]

Completely cool at all aspects... how she explains, how she interacts with the audience, how she managed saying "i dont feel qualified to talk about non-blocking, promises..." and how she says "fight fight fight" haha the best :)

[@AmbuSreedharan]

Your teaching experience really shines through the talk. Great stuff!

[@sleeplessdev7204]

By teaching a subject you recently learned, it's more fresh in your mind, you have simpler examples and gotcha's to share, and you don't get bogged down in all the details and exceptions to the rule that an expert in the field might. I wish more things were taught this way.

[@hiankun]

Never thought that one day I will get the concept of functional programming from a JS conference video. Great talk and explanation.

[@pb9405]

Best explanation I've heard so far, an important advantage of FP that she didn't mention is that it becomes much easier to test your code (unit testing), because there is no shared state.

[@Raghv426]

She is so expressive and I understood things which I couldn't understand before.

[@srikarravoori124]

Its always good to know concepts clearly, then we can work on something. And she did great job in explaining those basics of functional programming in this video.Thanks.

[@sashamc309]

this presentation was a gem at the time. I didn't realize how important this was for my understanding of FP in JavaScript, along with many other articles and videos. Just learning about mutations, what is Array.prototype.reduce, what is Array.prototype .map - explaining these in simple language is tremendously helpful for people trying to get into modern functional JS.

[@micjakes1]

Thank you for defining a function. Takes the smart to make things simple.

[@pierreafoutou7368]

She has this ability to explain things very well 👌

[@KresnaPermana]

She's pretty good as a speaker and sure it's well explained! thanks

[@krutikaverma8002]

Thank you so much Anjana for explaining FP in a simple and exciting way !!

[@Roshambo3]

Amazing presentation. This gave me a ton of “ah-ha” moments. She explained it really well

[@agentsmidt3209]

Great speaker.

[@dtsleite]

I´m not an english native but I can understand each word she says! Great!

[@ajayhemanth]

She was great !!! And also she was humble enough to say that she was not qualified to talk about certain topics, which made her even greater ...

[@petecapecod]

Wow that was a great talk. I loved how she broke everything down and explained it. Very glad I watched

[@ShaileshSingh-fy7hj]

Great speaker i'h ever heard you explained programming amazingly, I love the way you talk, though.

[@profmo]

I appreciate that programmers are finally embracing the virtues of functional programming. Back in the 80s and 90s, functional programming was seen as esoteric. Now it is mainstream. I hope this means that within 20 years, programming using higher-order type theory will become main stream.

[@xRJ]

good beginner's intro to fp.. wish I knew all this before starting react/redux

[@marconiiii]

I just started getting a little more deep into programing and specially on Js, so I found this introduction to functional programming very very useful to really understand the structure of programing and not only just a bunch of tools or instructions that all can we learn here and there. she was very clear with all those examples. cool conference!

[@pablofonseca8867]

Just a tip, in ECMAScript Standard you can use Object.freeze() to throw an error if someone tries to change the object, even if the object is a constant array and someone is trying to change the value of the memory address.

[@larryd9577]

This auditorium felt so familiar the whole time... It is the one I sit every week in. 😂 It's the Geomatikum in Hamburg.

[@diomoidapple]

Awesome job Anjana! I'm a computer science major and you have the best explanation I have seen yet., keep it up!

[@jvwdigital]

awesome awesome presentation. As a newbie, this was so insightful. Vakil's ability to communicate what she knows, along with her ability to know what she doesn't know, made her an extremely reliable authority on the subject of FP. I can't believe I watch the whole thing. Great presentation.

[@EdwardVarner]

Great into to FP and using it in JS! It's a shame the room was so dead, but she soldiered on anyway.

[@wullxz]

She talked about face expressions of her audience. Maybe they were just too startled by her good communicative skills and by her amazing talk to laugh or say something ^^

[@LuisGuillermoMoreno]

Edward Varner empty? I can see almost 600k attendants here

[@jeffery_tang]

The ending was pretty funny

[@adagas-caouchristian7875]

Great talk. I'm a webdev rookie and since I'm used to functional programming in other languages I was wondering how one could use this paradigm properly in JS. Thanks a lot.

[@joemoorhouse276]

as a junior developer fluent in ruby and beginning to learn javascript, this is an awesome video

[@helixobscura451]

Really engaging talk, she's able to make programming talks less of a bore.

[@bradv5982]

I'm not a JS developer, but I still found this talk really enlightening, and can translate the methods in this talk into other languages without any problems. Now excuse me, I have the sudden urge to get a subway sandwich

[@viditkothari9796]

From the future: 2019 This video is so much relevant today (if not more than ever), specially with React trending, these coding style, techniques are so widely used and benefitted from. Also, her explanation are so clear & concise. This is my 5th watch since 2016 :)

[@chengwilliam9309]

follow your idea，I'm finishing first time!

[@shahhussain3134]

i watched this video years ago during my graduation, and I fell in love with functional programming. ahh that sweet code!

[@paceaux]

ohhh man. this is awesome. It's nice to know that I've already been writing in a more functional style. But reading the raw math-like explanations of functional programming, I didn't really get it. This is a really helpful explanation of exactly how functional programming works in a JS conference. She deserves all the upvotes.

[@peeedurr]

"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." Edsger Dijkstra

[@bharatsn1]

Astronomy is study of celestial bodies in space, never was about telescopes...

[@loutragetadk453]

Yes CS is about information. It's the same with machine learning, it's not about machine but just how it's possible to learn.

[@iguess2739]

good thing they don't call it telescopology then, huh?

[@neilsumanda1538]

@@bharatsn1 that is the analogy..

[@DoubleGauss]

Computer science should be renamed to computational science. Or data manipulation science

[@elirane85]

Awesome video. I just wanted to add that it's kinda funny how Functional Programming is considered a "new" trend when in fact it existed way way before OOP.

[@frankye3205]

Great talk. I could feel her passion for functional programming and JS.

[@Vaibik]

I am glad I stumbled upon this video. I would watch it again. Informative and enjoyable at the same time. Personally a fan of FP more than OOP. She's a Great communicator! Should become a teacher. The audience seems to be on the opposite spectrum of the scale of sense of humour. Personally I liked more because I am also an Indian origin person (from the same sub-culture) and sometimes the young (and old) Indians outside India are not so great communicators. She is totally breaking that stereotype. I also connect with my audience like this and sometimes I face such tough crowd as well. :D

[@kasvith]

Damn I can watch this all the day

[@idhamhafidz]

thank you anjana vakil. i actually watch this. then i watched another talked by you on the same subject. finally i watched this again and now i really understand

[@sunnysheikh1090]

grate communicating power.....i m also a student and has started my career its very helpful special thanks to uniconf for providing her platform and allow us to hear her....and thank to anjana also

[@SangpilBYUN]

Thank you for teaching.

[@dmaMsk]

This is really just an introduction, but I couldn't like it since the presenter is super energetic and her manner to articulate and explain things just have captivated me :) Good talk! Way to go, Anjana Vakil!

[@diegoviniegra5837]

it's the third time I watch this video along 3 years and I still find interesting stuff. Anjana is great

[@zwdxff5493]

I have done many researchers about functional programming in JS. She could explain concepts clearly. This one is the best. 1 function is everything. 2 side affect is really clear.

[@TechExplorer27]

Anjana, you're an awesome speaker!

[@Perhelion1]

I've never seen a "programmer" talking so lequit and expressive.

[@shaswatkumarparida6179]

I am also a beginner to the advanced concepts of javascript. Such a comprehensive lecture.

[@uzver3787]

Yes, It's great explanation for me, because I have just started to learn JS. Thank you!

[@vicsar]

21:07 - Tough crowd tonight... is this mic on? (She did a great job)

[@ducamvinh4462]

yeah that's what i was thinking the whole time, what a dead crowd, she's amazing

[@gpnryou]

@@ducamvinh4462 Yes, she did a great job. But as I see it she seemed overexcited and that was evident to that specific audience

[@LanguageSkillz]

Agreed, quieter audience but she raced into every highlight she loved. They're good ones! I so appreciate how she distinguished their rescue features, in a cauldron of bubbling object staging.

[@darranoshea4824]

@@LanguageSkillz You can't really see the audience's faces, but I'd like to think they all have pretty big smiles every time Anjana makes a joke!

[@LanguageSkillz]

I very much appreciate Anjana's wonderment at Functional Programming approaches to organizing and executing JS code, and her explicit experiences implementing alternative strategies to for-looping. The relief was so apparent. 'Zaiste' has a nice Functional Programming overview as well, although it does not come up cohesively in KZbin. His address of predicate functions, as boolean, as filter, as closure check, prepped me so kindly for this lecture, and her mention of the mori library sounds like a superb option after delving into some _lodash. JS presents a most-robust programming language, and Node (and/or its insights) seem to free it from much object-oriented mayhem it can fling. Happy to look up your work on Node since this, AV. Can't express enough how refreshing this has been, especially after regarding some D. Crockford highlights of features that've been outright forced or misapplied, perhaps due to programmers' depth of experiences with other languages and extents of ineptitude regarding how to play to JS strengths. Yet JS is now a most vast body of internet code and with such varied approaches having been validated by several rounds of practices/schools of thought already. Some can sprawl outright Loch ness tentacles, and coming across legacy code is ever a thing. The Functional JS approach is also a favorite of mine, extending that single lamda strength to center function-as-object and within a more amazing nodular mesh.

[@bslndhamlegal3687]

What are you talking about ?

[@neverneverlandmysocialdile7912]

Totally agree 💯

[@neverneverlandmysocialdile7912]

@@bslndhamlegal3687 she's talking (code, if I may, and clearly this gal is approaching if not yet already accomplished greatness using these variables yet to be learned.)

[@AlexGhoro]

Thank you so much for this talk, she is a great speaker, Love it, the audience was so bad imo seems like they don't appreciate it... Greetings from Venezuela!

[@devchakrian8115]

That was such an amazing explanation about functional programming. The way that she explain makes everything looks so easy. I loved it S2

[@ashugowda5284]

lively and lovely talk :)

[@viksam009]

She is so easy to listen to. Its like listening to a radio jockey.

[@steve_seguin]

I love Functional Programming. Wish more people had the state of mind for it.

[@CyberAbyss007]

Great video! Functional programming is my favorite aspect of programming. My breakthrough in programming was when I got that objects are just collections of functions and sub routines. Methods to objects in OOP are just your function names. It is just layers of complexity.

[@aurelianspodarec2629]

Wow, she changed soo much

[@vim6284]

wow.. just... wow... I've seen a whole bunch of videos on youtube and subscribed all the channels related to programming but couldn't get a decent concept of this functional programming stuff. I was even thinking that, maybe these evil programmers intentionally manufactured this fake concept of FP, which means nothing in reality, in order to waste my time. After watching this video, however, it just blew my mind. I'll even say this video changed both my life and my future career as I'll set aside this OOP which gives me tons of headaches and eager to become a FP programmer from now on. Thank you so much, you just had a huge impact on one's life.

[@lukasjost44]

I am very curious now. Has your life been changed? :D

[@chynarabaizhanova3389]

She's great! Best map/reduce description!!!!Thank you Anjana!

[@USONOFAV]

You can use OOP amd FP together in different granularity. Use OOP to identify boundaries in the architecture and use FP inside those boundaries.

[@ashishjha9262]

directly watch from 4:56 :)

[@leeritenour]

8:14 People say that she was once a Kungfu master.

[@Mfbzai]

Lol

[@lailanashim274]

Haha nice catch!

[@gavinharris8619]

Perfectly handled an expert audience. Well done!

[@josephwong2832]

great talk. love how JSConf has grown since then

[@tryshchenko]

It was a nice speech, thanks. Did you write any unit tests for a code written in a functional style? Could you please share your experience and technologies which fit better to a functional paradigm? I did it in the previous project and found functional paradigm incredibly testable, but faced with a few questions like 'How to mock it correctly', 'Is it a good idea to test consequence of calls', etc.

[@piq-dg3vz]

for testing, dont u just give ur function inputs and assert the ouput?

[@tryshchenko]

Yep, in theory. But on practice, I got many complicated constructions which I also want to cover with tests. I have a solid understanding how to do it in OOP way, but not sure it's a good practice in functional programming.

[@vpowah69]

Unless the code you test involves side-effects, you generally don't need mocks in functional programming. blog.jenkster.com/2015/12/which-programming-languages-are-functional.html

[@karanpadda]

i feel motivated, i think we need more women programmers for sure.

[@osamagamal495]

hell yeah!!

[@pinxieanime]

Indeed!

[@fazalmehmood6802]

As a full stack developer based in Norway, none of the concepts she explained were new to me but I did it anyways because she is such a great speaker. I wish I could meet her in real life and exchange ideas.

[@anvarsaidov8964]

You feel like fish a pond in that audience. All discussed is still relative in 2022, seen them all used in my current project. It's been a pleasure to watch and learn from you.

[@zhiyiwang6466]

Wow. Nice and clear. No time waste. 😌