Book review: Functional Python Programming

content/reviews/books/functional-python-programming.md

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+title = "Functional Python Programming - Create Succinct and Expressive Implementations with Python - Steven F. Lott"
+date = 2020-08-27
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["books", "review", "it", "steven f lott", "python", "functional", 
+"1 star", "2020 challenge"]
++++
+
+[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24925633-functional-python-programming---create-succinct-and-expressive-implement):
+With Functional Python Programming by your side you’ll understand the core
+concepts of function Python, its impact on the programming workflow, and how
+to implement it in Python, giving you the ability to take your applications to
+an even higher level.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=1) }}
+
+Another book the proves my theory that the quality of a book is inversely
+proportional to the amount of "as follows".
+
+But functional programming in Python is generators. 
+
+That's it: Generators. Oh, generators and tuples.
+
+There is a lot in this book, but mostly seems... wrong. For example, talking
+about "tail call optimization", when Python does not have them. And then
+talking how to optimize those -- which, again, it is plain "replace with a
+generator".
+
+Also, the case for tuples is that namedtuples is mentioned, but rarely used.
+This makes code hard to read, except the author decided to create lambdas to
+extract them, so you end up with a bunch of `xy_g = lambda p: p[0][1][0]`.
+What the fuck is `0`, `1` and `0` again in this? Why not use name tuples and,
+instead of this atrocity, go with `p.position.x`?
+
+Other examples of wrong things:
+
+- "extract the docstring function": Doctstrings are strings, not functions.
+- "GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) GNU General Public License (GPL) file
+	format": Neither GIMP not GPL is a file format; one is a photo editor and
+	the other is a license.
+- "This is relatively simple implementation copied from the World Wide Web":
+	And we all know how things on the web are reliant.
+- "We can use `((line.split() for line in file)` to create a sequence of ten
+	tuples": First of all, yes, the there is some unbalanced parenthesis
+	there; second, that thing won't generate ten tuples, it will generate as
+	many as the lines in the file -- which is never shown, by the way.
+- Calling functions that return generators "higher-order functions". And no,
+	the function does not receive a function, it simply returns a generator.
+- "perms = permutations(range(6)))))". Yup, there are 4 extra closing
+	parenthesis.
+- Splitting a string with a path in it by `/`, then checking the first value
+	instead of, say, `path.startswith('expected_value')`.
+- "We've created a Counter() function": Counter is a class, not a function.
+- Lots of "not clear if this is helpful". Ok, showing some sort of code is ok,
+	but not explaining where if it is useful -- or if it is useful at all --
+	is plain... lazy.
+- "We've shown the loop here to clarify that the server must, generally, be
+	crashed": It's the first time that I see that we expect a server to be
+	crashed.
+- There is a convoluted aggregation grouping things in a dictionary with a key
+	and a count, and then using `Counter()` to check the number of times
+	something appear. Problem is, when `Counter()` process the dict, it will
+	get only the keys, so the whole process of generating the dictionary is
+	completely useless.
+- By the end of the book, I'm not sure if things are being double
+	double-quoted (as in ""this is string"") or quadruple single-quote
+	(''''this is string'''') -- but neither format is valid Python.
+
+Besides all that, there is a bunch of explanations that are very much akin to
+
+> `a = a + 1`
+>
+> Adds 1 to `a`
+
+Also, there are chapters for multiprocessing, which has absolutely nothing
+functional about it and WSGI, which, again, has nothing functional about it.
+
+The whole book feels rushed and badly reviewed -- if reviewed before
+publishing at all.