More specifically, functional programming is a set of approaches to coding, usually described as a programming paradigm.

Based on a pure mathematical approach to programming, they were the basis of much modern computer science research, with languages such as ML, Haskell, and oCaml.

Backus asserted that the Von Neumann architecture and its associated imperative languages are fundamentally flawed, and presented a functional-level programming language (FP) as a solution.

The Vine programming language is a new experimental language built on interaction nets. It features interoperability between functional and imperative programming patterns.

In systems with multiple processors and multiple cores some developers are now using functional programming languages like Haskell, Erlang and Scala.

The Caml functional programming language provided Jane Street with powerful error-catching capabilities One Wall Street firm found computational success not on the traditional path of enterprise ...

Editor's note: Andrew Mager is reporting from the Future of Web Apps (FOWA 2010) conference, held in Miami from February 22 to 24. Click here to read all of his coverage.

JavaScript has topped the list of the “most popular” programming languages in the Stack Overflow survey for the past seven years.

Functional Languages seem to be pushing for the title of the next cool thing. Talks and tutorials about them are starting to show up in conferences and conventions, books about them are hitting the ...

Java is in the mix along with other programming languages but functional programming languages show up in very few embedded discussions.