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John Carmack on mutable variables

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498 points azhenley | 1 comments | 31 Oct 25 02:34 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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munchler ◴[31 Oct 25 02:54 UTC] No.45767832[source]▶
> Making almost every variable const at initialization is good practice. I wish it was the default, and mutable was a keyword.

It's funny how functional programming is slowly becoming the best practice for modern code (pure functions, no side-effects), yet functional programming languages are still considered fringe tech for some reason.

If you want a language where const is the default and mutable is a keyword, try F# for starters. I switched and never looked back.

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1. LogicHound ◴[31 Oct 25 09:08 UTC] No.45769875[source]▶
> It's funny how functional programming is slowly becoming the best practice for modern code (pure functions, no side-effects),

I once mentioned both these concepts to a room of C# developers. Two of them were senior to me and it was a blank expression from pretty much everyone.

> yet functional programming languages are still considered fringe tech for some reason.

You can use the same concepts in non-functional programming languages without having to buy into all the other gumpf around functional programming languages. Also other programming languages have imported functional concepts either into the language itself or into the standard libraries.

Past that. It is very rare to be able to get a job using them. The number of F# jobs I've seen advertised over the last decade, I could count on one hand.