Big data and functional programming
Summary
As we work more with big data, analysing large swathes of information, we are increasingly looking at functional programming languages for our development. Recently Ive been learning, and working with, the F# programming language, originally developed by Microsoft Research and now released as Open Source on github. Traditional OO languages are designed around the concept for mutability, and this makes it especially challenging to write code that is robust when running concurrently. One of the most interesting thing about Functional Programming is its links with mathematics, and with higher level of abstractions such as Monoids and Monads (from an area of maths called category theory). For more examples have a quick look at the MBrace programming model Their code is opensource on github Im loving F#, and with the cloud and big data on the rise, these functional concepts are becoming ever more important.
