Wow, the arrogance and ignorance is just incredible, just the way I remember. :-) Someone who doesn't buy into your highly constrained world-view must obviously be ignorant.
"doesn't seem like you got it" ... "purposefully not getting it" ... "principles [..] undeniably the best".
No, you like those principles best, and that's about the most you can say. We don't even have solid criteria with which to make that call, never mind there being any type of consensus as to which is "best" (except within specific communities, but with each community having a different consensus and the most closed-minded of these communities usually the most sure of themselves).
Just to head off more ignorant comments: I aced those courses, as well as a few more including the elective "foundations of FP" and did my oral exam on Backus's FP calculus, which inspired me to come up with Higher Order Messaging: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_order_message
I also did some courses on algebraic specification and graph grammars (related to category theory), as well as formal specification with Z (yes, aced those as well). While useful in certain very constrained areas, these techniques trade making the smaller problem better (spec -> code) for making the larger problem ( actual problem -> spec ) infinitely worse.
Of course, functional techniques are a part of my toolbox, as they should be for any professional. However, if they were the only contents or even the majority of my toolbox, I couldn't do what I do and have been doing for the last quarter century.
Bravo! I doubt programmers will escape their quest for the 'right answer' to questions with context specific answers - but it's nice to see someone with the credentials making it clear that we should try.
"doesn't seem like you got it" ... "purposefully not getting it" ... "principles [..] undeniably the best".
No, you like those principles best, and that's about the most you can say. We don't even have solid criteria with which to make that call, never mind there being any type of consensus as to which is "best" (except within specific communities, but with each community having a different consensus and the most closed-minded of these communities usually the most sure of themselves).
Just to head off more ignorant comments: I aced those courses, as well as a few more including the elective "foundations of FP" and did my oral exam on Backus's FP calculus, which inspired me to come up with Higher Order Messaging: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_order_message
I also did some courses on algebraic specification and graph grammars (related to category theory), as well as formal specification with Z (yes, aced those as well). While useful in certain very constrained areas, these techniques trade making the smaller problem better (spec -> code) for making the larger problem ( actual problem -> spec ) infinitely worse.
Of course, functional techniques are a part of my toolbox, as they should be for any professional. However, if they were the only contents or even the majority of my toolbox, I couldn't do what I do and have been doing for the last quarter century.