The ACM SIGPLAN has put forth a proposal calling for all computing programs that follow ACM/IEEE standards to require functional programming: http://wiki.acm.org/cs2001/index.php?title=SIGPLAN_Proposal
In support of that proposal, a claim is made in the comments on the current draft of the CS curriculum standards: The Psychology in Programming Interest Group has published several papers on studies concerning the economic and psychological effectiveness of programmers. The key result is that it is *not* the number of years spent on programming that count; instead it is the number of through "paradigm" switches that make programmers more effective as software engineers. In light of points 1 and 2, I consider it obvious that FP is the proper compromise solution as a second paradigm for students. It will open their minds and prepare them for the quickly changing world of real-world software engineering. I am trying to find these PPIG "several papers" and have not succeeded yet. I'm guessing that their authors probably read here. Could you please send me references or links to papers, please? Many Thanks! Mark
