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Functional Programming in Scheme
Programming Paradigms
Paradigm

The word programming paradigm is used in several different, although related meanings in computer science.

It is interesting and useful to investigate the meaning of the word 'paradigm'

"An example that serves as pattern or model."

The dictionary meaning of the word 'paradigm' comes from 'The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition'.

"A philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated"

This dictionary meaning of the word paradigm comes from 'The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dictionary' - meaning 3 out of 3.

  • Programming paradigm (in this course)

    • A pattern that serves as a school of thoughts for programming of computers

  • Programming technique

    • Related to an algorithmic idea for solving a particular class of problems

    • Examples: 'Divide and conquer' and 'program development by stepwise refinement'

  • Programming style

    • The way we express ourselves in a computer program

    • Related to elegance or lack of elegance

  • Programming culture

    • The totality of programming behavior, which often is tightly related to a family of programming languages

    • The sum of a main paradigm, programming styles, and certain programming techniques.