More Functional Reusability in C / C++ / Objective-c with Curried Functions

Several mechanisms commonly used in functional programming languages can be beneficial in terms of conciseness and reuse potential in more traditional programming areas, like applications programming or even systems programming. An implementation of functional operators for the C, C++ and Objective-C languages, based on the principle of curried functions, is proposed. Its implications in terms of improved power and additional cost are examined. Examples of parameterized function generators, function compositions and closures are given. A particular section shows how closures of C++/Objective-C objects with their member functions can be done with the currying operator. 1. Introduction Functional programming is still limited mainly to academic circles; applications programmers or systems programmers generally use imperative languages like C, PASCAL, FORTRAN, COBOL or ADA, or, more recently, object-oriented languages like C++, Objective-C or Smalltalk. In these languages, functional oper..