cheez on Functional Programming in Python

Comment on Functional Programming in Python

I'm a big fan of functional programming but this documentation is kind of funny, unintentionally. I realize there is no better way to do it in Python.

And that’s how your initial refactored code will look like:

  user: Optional[User]

  can_buy_stuff: Maybe[bool] = Maybe.from_value(user).map(  # type hint is not required
      lambda real_user: real_user.get_balance(),
  ).map(
      lambda balance: balance.credit_amount(),
  ).map(
      lambda balance_credit: balance_credit > 0,
  )

Much better, isn’t it?

rbonvall 6y

I'm also a FP fanboy, and this concept doesn't quite convince me. I'm not sure a Maybe type really helps that much in a dynamically typed language. All the safety you get from using Maybes is worth Nothing (pun intended) when credit_amount could still return let's say Just a string, or raises an exception.

If this chain of calls supposedly handles Nones at any level, then .map is not the right method. It should be .flatMap (or .bind). Unless this is a magic .map that handles either X or Maybe[X] and even exceptions (just like JS promises). This flexibility may be convenient and I can appreciate its pythonicness, but it's not really in the spirit of typed FP.

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