- Author
- Chris Okasaki
- Published
- 8 February 2008
- Kind
- Personal blog post with reader comments
- Original
- okasaki.blogspot.com/2008/02/ten-years-of-purely-functional-data.html
- Subject
- Programming languages and types
What it is
Chris Okasaki wrote the book and the blog. The post marks the tenth anniversary of the book. It tells the story of the research, the publishing, and the criticism.
What it says
- Okasaki says the book grew from work on efficient purely functional queues, using lazy evaluation.
- Okasaki designed data structures by analogy to number systems, calling the idea numerical representations.
- Okasaki found the analysis for lazy structures on a snowy walk, using debits.
- The book gives hash tables one exercise and omits red-black deletion, which Okasaki defends.
- Okasaki chose Standard ML to separate lazy from strict evaluation and to use modules.
- A second edition is possible but not soon, and the language is the open question.
What evidence it gives
The post offers memoir and anecdote only. It says sales doubled after a 2004 Slashdot review, with no sales figures. The comments add reader reports, a possible quilt pattern name, and two errata claims.
Interests and limits
The author wrote the book and earns royalties, so this is a personal look back. Sales claims are the author's impression. The post predates later work and the comments run to 2023. The comments are unverified.