To write a program is to deal with uncertainty. Sometimes it feels like there's nothing we can count on and null (or undefined) is as pervasive as any other construct in our languages. However this does not have to be! LambdaCast dives into the thorny problem of null, and more broadly the potential for values not to exist and offers up some alternatives.

Aaron's "and then" reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkdyU_eUm1U

6: Null And Friends

LambdaCast is a podcast about functional programming for working developers. Our focus is to describe concepts using clear everyday language without watering anything down. If you've ever been curious about FP but were turned off by the jargon or unfamiliar concepts, this is the place to be.

Thoughts, comments, critique? Send them to contact@lambdacast.com

Music is "Lively Lumpsucker" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Icon is a modification of "Communicator" by Juan Pablo Bravo (https://thenounproject.com/term/communicator/47500/)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

This time we discuss the way data tends to be structured in functional languages and some of the similarities with databases and REST.

Episode 22 patrons:
Jason Sooter
Jamie Rolfs
Christian Hamburger
Daniel Svensson
Di Wen
Iulian Bojinca
Jonathan Fishbein
Nathan Sculli
Nels Wadycki
Paul Naranja
Peter Tillemans
Thomas Varney
Tyler Harper
weila wei
Dawn (שחר)


Show Notes:
CPPCast: http://cppcast.com/

John Soo - Sharing in Haskell
https://wiki.haskell.org/Sharing
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1105765/generating-fibonacci-numbers-in-haskell

Alejandro’s link to Phantom Types article: https://www.objc.io/blog/2014/12/29/functional-snippet-13-phantom-types/

FP Chat Slack Community: https://fpchat-invite.herokuapp.com

Intro/Outro music is "Lively Lumpsucker" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

22: Structuring Data

You may have seen generics in C#, Java, or Swift but there are a lot of very useful patterns using generics that rarely get used in an OO context. In this episode, we explore Type Parameters (aka generics) from a functional perspective and how using them can improve the structure of your applications.

Episode 21 patrons:
Scott Smith
Joel McCracken
Hakon Rossebo
Seth Utecht
Christophe Pereira da Conceicao
E. Mulder

Show Notes:
Add a type parameter video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHjIl81HgfE
Matt Parson's follow-up post: http://www.parsonsmatt.org/2017/04/08/maybe_use_a_type_parameter.html
Stephen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/S11001001
Type Parameter example in Scala: https://typelevel.org/blog/2015/09/21/change-values.html

FP Chat Slack Community: https://fpchat-invite.herokuapp.com

21: Type Parameters

Lazy evaluation is not normally something you hear programmers discussing but there is a lot of power available if you know how to use it. This episode we'll examine the differences between lazy and strict evaluation and look at use cases for laziness.

Episode 20 patrons:
Marcus Nielsen
Steven Loe
Ted Yavuzkurt
Michael Meyers
Szymon Beczkowski
Parl Naranja
Paul Brabban
Jason Sooter

Show Notes:
Memoization: https://codeburst.io/functional-memoization-in-javascript-adec62508bd0
Using IEnumerable in C# to generate an infinite sequence: https://brianreiter.org/2011/01/14/ienumerable-is-lazy-and-thats-cool/

FP Chat Slack Community: https://fpchat-invite.herokuapp.com

20: Laziness

Logan walks us through what his experience has been starting a JavaScript project in a functional style and using the best FP tools he can get in the JavaScript ecosystem.

Episode 19 patrons:
Nathan Sculli
Lee Beck
David Joyner
Nihohit
Charles Winebrinner

FP Chat Slack Community: https://fpchat-invite.herokuapp.com

19: Starting A Project Functionally

Monads, the promised land of functional programming. Or at least with all the hype they'd better be! Come join the cast as we demystify this overhyped structure that has become an indispensable part of many functional programmer's toolkits.

Episode 18 patrons:
Pluton
Tim Buckley
Huge shout out to Marcus Nielsen

Show Notes:
bind :: m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b

Example of do syntax vs using bind aka >>=:
main = do
foo <- doMonadyThing
foo2 <- doOtherMonadyThing foo
pure (whatever foo foo2)

main = doMonadyThing
>>= (\foo -> doOtherMonadyThing foo 
>>= (\foo2 -> pure (whatever foo foo2))
)

Extracting a value from a Maybe

extract :: Just Int -> Int
extract foo = case foo of
Just num -> num
Nothing -> 0

Railroad oriented programming talk by Scott Wlaschin
fsharpforfunandprofit.com/rop/

FP Chat Slack Community: https://fpchat-invite.herokuapp.com

6: Null And Friends

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