Summary

In this chapter, we looked at how we can use the PyMonad library to express some functional programming concepts directly in Python. The module shows many important functional programming techniques.

We looked at the idea of currying, a function that allows combinations of arguments to be applied to create new functions. Currying a function also allows us to use functional composition to create more complex functions from simpler pieces. We looked at functors that wrap simple data objects to make them into functions which can also be used with functional composition.

Monads are a way to impose a strict evaluation order when working with an optimizing compiler and lazy evaluation rules. In Python, we don't have a good use case for monads, because Python is an imperative programming language under the hood. In some cases, imperative Python may be more expressive and succinct than a monad construction.

In the next chapter, we'll look at how we can apply functional programming...