Functional Pearls
In Summer 2009, I took over from Richard Bird as editor of
the Functional Pearls column
in Journal
of Functional Programming. (I'm also a general editor of
the journal, so may deal with ordinary papers too.) I'm keen for
submissions;
do get in
touch if you'd like to discuss a potential paper.
What is a Functional Pearl?
Richard Bird gave an invited talk at ICFP 2006 in Portland
on How to
Write a Functional Pearl, and I heartily recommend that
pearl authors and reviewers look at his slides.
Bird recalls Jon Bentley's Programming Pearls column in CACM, about
which Bentley wrote: "Just as natural pearls grow from grains of sand
that have irritated oysters, these programming pearls have grown from
real problems that have irritated programmers. The programs are fun,
and they teach important programming techniques and fundamental design
principles." Those guidelines apply too to functional pearls.
Typical functional pearls consist of:
- an instructive example of program calculation or proof, or
- a nifty presentation of an old or new data structure, or
- an interesting application or programming technique.
Bird characterizes them as "polished, elegant, instructive,
entertaining". They are not just shorter versions of standard research
papers; they are not judged by the same criteria, and should not have
the same structure. In particular, they need not have the typical
academic paraphernalia of abstract, introduction, conclusion, related
work, and thorough referencing. Think more along the lines of short stories—6 to 10
pages, brisk, engaging, accessible, surprising.
Nevertheless, pearls are still subject to peer review. I will continue
to give Bird's advice to reviewers, instructing them to stop reading
when:
- they get bored, or
- the material gets too complicated, or
- too much specialist knowledge is needed, or
- the writing is bad.
Many people have found that writing in this format is fun, and
I look forward to receiving burnished, lustrous submissions!
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