Higher Order Functions and Partial Application in C++

Polymorphic types, higher order functions, and partial application are common features in functional programming languages. They allow a compact formulation of algorithms and their integration into imperative languages will increase expressiveness. Current approaches to integrate functional features into imperative languages are either based on the definition of a new language, or implemented as a runtime mechanism. While the first variant needs a special compiler, the second is less efficient and may not support polymorphic types. In this paper we will present a method of how to integrate functional features into C++ without the need of runtime mechanisms, special preprocessors, or compilers. As a practical application of these features we will demonstrate how parallel environments can benefit from these features