What is a good use case to implement for learning Functional Programming?

Question

I am a Java programmer looking to learn Functional Programming. My aim is to implement a simple use case (say a simple text-based game like tic-tac-toe) in various Functional Programming languages (i.e. Clojure, Scala) in order to learn the ins and outs of each.

Are there any FP gurus out there who can recommend a specific use case that I could begin with? Or is Tic Tac Toe (noughts and crosses) good enough to get started?

Note that at this point I will be focusing on JVM based languages.

I hate to say it, but this is too broad and/or primarily opinion based. In addition, whether you use a JVM language or not doesn't matter, does it? — Ingo, May 09 '14 at 08:36
I added the note about JVM in case it was relevant for someone, but I see your point. — Mark, May 09 '14 at 09:49
Take a look at: https://www.coursera.org/course/progfun - it covers the basics of functional programming using Scala. It should be easier to learn other FP languages. — Akos Krivachy, May 09 '14 at 10:25
You can also look at implementing some of, say, list operations, in the preferred language of your choice just using the primitive operations. For example how would you implement a 'set' by using a list and the operations available for working on list. If you are into Clojure, try http://www.4clojure.com/ — grdvnl, May 09 '14 at 14:30
@AkosKrivachy I think the first part of https://www.coursera.org/course/proglang is a lot focussed towards fundamentals of functional programming, without the noise of Scala syntax. — grdvnl, May 09 '14 at 14:32

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 09 '14 at 16:30

I think Tic-Tac-Toe would help you, indeed. Let me share how I started, I started learning by,

Writing arithmetic functions in Clojure; for example, next-prime, prime?, factors, prime-factors, and stuff like that
Then making those idiomatic as far as I could
Then ask question here, or anywhere, to improve a particular function

Here is the link of math.arithmetic.

Note: It's missing a decent README. I'll put that later. Actually, I never thought of sharing this because it's so trivial.

[Edited]

You can try 4clojure.

4Clojure is a resource to help fledgling clojurians learn the language through interactive problems.

[Edited, again]

There is also Project Euler, which many people have found useful for precisely this sort of thing.

Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve.

Tic-Tac-Toe make a nice small problem domain that is well understood. Any small problem domain that you understand and are interested in would make project for learning a new language. You want to do something you know well so you can focus on the implementation rather than the problem being solved. — M Smith, May 09 '14 at 13:02

What is a good use case to implement for learning Functional Programming?

1 Answers1