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Document options Document options requiring JavaScript are not displayed Rate this pageHelp us improve this contentLevel: IntroductoryDavid Mertz (mertz@gnosis.cx), Applied Metaphysician, Gnosis Software, Inc. 01 Mar 2001Although users usually think of Python as a procedural and object-oriented language, it actually contains everything you need for a completely functional approach to programming. This article discusses general concepts of functional programming, and illustrates ways of implementing functional techniques in Python. We'd better start with the hardest question: "What is functional programming (FP), anyway?" One answer would be to say that FP is what you do when you program in languages like Lisp, Scheme, Haskell, ML, OCAML, Clean, Mercury, or Erlang (or a few others). That is a safe answer, but not one that clarifies very much. Unfortunately, it is hard to get a consistent opinion on just what FP is, even from functional programmers themselves. A story about elephants and blind men seems apropos here. It is also safe to contrast FP with "imperative programming" (what you do in languages like C, Pascal, C++, Java, Perl, Awk, TCL, and most others, at least for the most part).

Charming Python: Using state machinesAlgorithms and programming approaches in Python

Charming Python: SimPy simplifies complex models

To attempt to explain it in the simplest terms, a continuation is a representation, at a particular point in a program, of everything the program is capable of doing subsequently. A continuation is a potential that depends on initial conditions. Rather than loop in a traditional way, it is possible to invoke the same continuation recursively with different initial conditions. One broad claim I have read is that continuations, in a theoretical sense, are more fundamental and underlie every other control structure. Don't worry if these ideas cause your brain to melt; that is a normal reaction.

Metaclass programming in PythonPushing object-oriented programming to the next level

New to AOP? You may find this "Introduction to Aspect-Oriented Programming" (PDF) by Ken Wing Kuen Lee of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology interesting.

Objects that represent potential behavior (functions and methods) can be invoked, or called. We can test an object's callability with the callable() function: