Functional Programming in C# vs LISP [closed]

Answer 1

Per your question, as a Lisper, what I miss when programming in Java (sorry, I don't use C#):

1. Good syntax: s-expressions.
2. Dynamic typing: no complex type declarations.
3. Closures.

C# addresses (2) and (3) with var and =>, respectively, as I understand it. So my main hang-up is curlies and semi-colons, along with verbose, confusing generic type declarations.

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Per your title, as a functional programmer (Haskell), I miss what all those other guys said: immutability, full type inference, tuples, pattern matching, easier generics because no subclassing, strongly typed libraries.

Also, as a Haskell programmer, I still don't like curlies and semi-colons. :)

Answer 2

Support for immutability, primarily.

It should be easy to create an immutable type and verify that it's immutable. It should be easy to use an immutable type - support like object and collection initializers, but for the immutable case.

After that: better type inference capabilities, tuples, pattern matching, and supporting libraries (again, immutable lists etc).

EDIT: I should say that I'm not a functional programmer, but I'm a C# programmer trying to learn more functional ways. I'm currently helping out (in a small way) with a functional programming book, so I'm learning lots of stuff there.

However, you will hopefully be pleased with LINQ. It does make life much easier for working with sequences of data.

Answer 3

I am, and I do. That is, I use Lisp at home and C# at work and I do miss Lisp when in C#. The question is a little funny because I don't consider (Common) Lisp any more "functional" than C# or Ruby or any other multi-paradigm language.

In general, C#'s functional features are becoming pretty decent, to the point where they're probably Good Enough, if a bit awkward. (Common Lisp's support for functional programming sure isn't perfect, either!) But Common Lisp is a multi-paradigm language; C# doesn't (and may never) match Lisp on syntactic abstraction, code generation, method dispatch flexibility, and so on.

If you're looking for an excuse to avoid learning Lisp because you think C# is just as powerful, sorry. :-)