FC++: The Functional C++ Library

New! FC++, the academic project, is now the basis for FC++, the public open source project. See FC++ on Sourceforge!

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FC++: Functional Programming in C++

Higher-Order Polymorphic Functions in the C++ Language

FC++ is a library for functional programming in C++. Functional programming is a programming paradigm in which functions are treated as regular values. Thus, we can have functions that take other functions as parameters. The former functions are called "higher-order" functions. A common feature of functions is that they can be polymorphic. "Polymorphic" means that the same function can be used with arguments of many types. FC++ is distinguished from other libraries (including the C++ Standard Library) by its complete support for polymorphism: FC++ polymorphic higher-order functions can take other polymorphic functions as arguments and return polymorphic functions as results. This is particularly useful (i.e., simplifies code) in C++ where type inference is limited and we often need to pass polymorphic functions around and determine their type later.

With FC++ you can define your own higher-order polymorphic functions, but the library also contains a large amount of functionality that can be re-used as-is in C++ programs. This includes infinite ("lazy") lists, useful higher-order functions (like map, compose, etc.), a reference-counting facility that can be used to replace C++ pointers, many common logical and arithmetic operators in a form that can be used with higher-order functions, and more.

Documentation

Functional Programming in C++ using the FC++ Library: a short article introducing FC++ (in April 2001 SIGPLAN Notices). This is a good introduction to the library.
Functional Programming in C++: the original research paper describing FC++. Presented in the 2000 International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP 2000). Great for understanding some of the ideas behind the implementation of FC++. Important note: the actual syntax and names of some operators have changed slightly since the version of FC++ described in this paper. For up-to-date concrete technical information, use the "Getting Started with FC++" tutorial, below.
FC++: Functional Tools for OO Tasks: another paper that shows how some common OO programming tasks benefit from FC++. A revised version appears in the August 2002 edition of Software Practice and Experience (John Wiley and Sons).
Functional Programming with the FC++ library: the most thorough paper on the design and implementation of the library. A slightly revised version will soon appear in the Journal of Functional Programming (Cambridge University Press).
- A previous, very different version of this paper was presented at the Second Workshop on C++ Template Programming. This version combines material from the SIGPLAN Notices paper and the JFP paper, but the text and examples are written with a C++ audience in mind.
Syntax sugar for FC++: lambda, infix, monads, and more. To be presented at DPCOOL'03. This paper describes the new features in FC++ v1.5.
Frequently asked questions about FC++
Getting started with FC++ (a tutorial)
Various library documents:

Distribution

FC++, the academic project, is now the basis for FC++, the public open source project. See FC++ on Sourceforge!
The original (academic project) FC++ download page. You can view and download individual files or the whole library, as well as several example files.

Discussion

There is a mailing list for users to discuss FC++. To subscribe to the list, visit the mailman page. (The mailing list was created on 5/23/2002 as a majordomo list. It was converted to a mailman list on 9/29/2003.)

Customers

The XR (Exact Reals) library is based on FC++.
The BSFC++ library is a library for parallel programming which uses FC++.
The LC++ library is a library for logic programming in C++, which is built atop FC++.

People

FC++ is being developed by Brian McNamara and Yannis Smaragdakis. Feel free to write to us if you have questions or comments about the library; we appreciate feedback from our users.

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