Functional Programming is the *(term) for a powerful _(paradigm) for programming that originates in the early works about _(lambda calculus): computations consist in evaluating/expanding structured expressions, rather than executing instructions, as with imperative programming.

Because functional programming has so simple semantics, it makes proving _(correctness) of programs, to manipulate programs, to parallelize them, etc., relatively easy.

Functional perspectives work when there is a logical perspective that permits encapsulating _(side effect)s as results within some context or system; consequently the benefits described here are not trivial to achieve.

<ul class="links">
<li>_(Why Functional Programming Matters| http://www.md.chalmers.se/~rjmh/Papers/whyfp.html), a famous essay explaining how _(higher-order) functions and lazy evaluation can help in creating modular, well-designed programs, including examples.
<li>_(LtU)'s _(functional programming topic| http://lambda.weblogs.com/newsItems/viewDepartment$functional).
<LI>The <A HREF="http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/Department/Staff/gmh/faq.html">FAQ</A> for <A HREF="news:comp.lang.functional">comp.lang.functional</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://website.lineone.net/~claus_reinke/">Claus Reinke</A>'s own little <A HREF="http://www.cs.ukc.ac.uk/people/staff/cr3/FP/">FP link</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/~wadler/realworld/">Real-World</A> uses of functional programming languages.
<LI>The _(Journal of Functional Programming| http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/jfp/)
<LI>There are fine functional programming groups at _(Glasgow| http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/fp), St Andrews, Rocquencourt, etc.
<LI>the SEL-HPC _(Functional Programming Archive| http://www.dcs.qmul.ac.uk/SEL-HPC/Articles/FuncArchive.html)
<LI>_(Purely Functional Data Structures| http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~cdo/pfds-sml.tar.gz), a great book by _(Chris Okasaki).
<LI>John Hughes' _(collection of tutorials| http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~rjmh/tutorials.html)
</ul>
