Functional PHP Extensions
A set of higher-order functions and other primatives written in PHP4 which let you write php code in a functional style, similar to the way you might in Haskell, Scheme, or ML. There are also stubby object-to-functional bindings.
There are many advantages to a functional style of programming:
- Less Code, More Function.
- It tries to eliminate side effects, which are a common source of odd behaviour (bugs).
- It tries to focus on the intent of a computation without getting bogged down in the algorithms.
Be aware that this is a strict functional approach. That means that things are computed when they are expressed, not when they are used. It also means we tend to trade memory (and sometimes CPU) for programmer productivity. Most of the time, this is not an issue. The web is almost uniformily I/O bound, not CPU bound. It's a good trade.